History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 09Carlyle, Thomas
History
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 09
Carlyle, Thomas
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786; Social problems
This Hansard Report went off direct to Prince Eugene; and ought to have
been a warning to the high Vienna heads and him. But they persisted
not the less to please Robinson or themselves; considering his Prussian
Majesty to be, in fact, a mere rotatory Clothes-horse for drying the
Imperial linen on; and to have no intellect at all, because he was
without guile, and had no vulpinism at all. In which they were very much
mistaken indeed. History is proud to report that the guileless Prussian
Majesty, steadily attending to his own affairs in a wise manner, though
hoodwinked and led about by Black-Artists as he had been, turned out
when Fact and Nature subsequently pronounced upon it, to have had more
intellect than the whole of them together,--to have been, in a manner,
the only one of them that had any real "intellect," or insight into Fact
and Nature, at all. Consummate Black-art Diplomacies overnetting the
Universe, went entirely to water, running down the gutters to the last
drop; and a prosperous Drilled Prussia, compact, organic in every part,
from diligent plough-sock to shining bayonet and iron ramrod, remained
standing. "A full Treasury and 200,000 well-drilled men would be the one
guarantee to your Pragmatic Sanction," Prince Eugene had said. But that
bit of insight was not accepted at Vienna; Black-art, and Diplomatic
spider-webs from pole to pole, being thought the preferable method.
Enough, Seckendorf was ordered to manipulate and soothe down the
Prussian Majesty, as surely would be easy; to continue his galvanic
operations on the Double-Match, or produce a rotation in the purposes of
the royal breast. Which he diligently strove to do, when once admitted
to speech again;--Grumkow steadily declining to meddle, and only Queen
Sophie, as we can fancy, auguring joyfully of it. Seckendorf, admitted
to speech the third day after that explosive Session, snuffles his
softest, his cunningest;--continues to ride diligently, the concluding
portion (such it proved) of his 25,000 miles with the Prussian Majesty
up and down through winter and spring; but makes not the least progress,
the reverse rather.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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