History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 20Carlyle, Thomas
History
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 20
Carlyle, Thomas
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786; Social problems
In regard to Gellert's Horse-exercise, I had still to remember that
Gellert, not long after, did get a Horse; two successive Horses; both
highly remarkable. The first especially; which was Prince Henri's gift:
"The Horse Prince Henri had ridden at the Battle of Freyberg" (Battle
to be mentioned hereafter);--quadruped that must have been astonished at
itself! But a pretty enough gift from the warlike admiring Prince to
his dyspeptic Great Man. This Horse having yielded to Time, the very
Kurfurst (grandson of Polish Majesty that now is) sent Gellert another,
housing and furniture complete; mounted on which, Gellert and it were
among the sights of Leipzig;--well enough known here to young Goethe, in
his College days, who used to meet the great man and princely horse, and
do salutation, with perhaps some twinkle of scepticism in the corner of
his eye. [DICHTUNG UND WAHRHEIT, Theil ii. Buch 6 (in Goethe's WERKE,
xxv. 51 et seq).] Poor Gellert fell seriously ill in December, 1769;
to the fear and grief of all the world: "estafettes from the Kurfurst
himself galloped daily, or oftener, from Dresden for the sick bulletin;"
but poor Gellert died, all the same (13th of that month); and we have
(really with pathetic thoughts, even we) to bid his amiable existence in
this world, his bits of glories and him, adieu forever.
DIALOGUE WITH GENERAL SALDERN (in the Apel House, Leipzig, 21st January,
1761).
Four or five weeks after this of Gellert, Friedrich had another
Dialogue, which also is partly on record, and is of more importance to
us here: Dialogue with Major-General Saldern; on a certain business,
delicate, yet profitable to the doer,--nobody so fit for it as Saldern,
thinks the King. Saldern is he who did that extraordinary feat
of packing the wrecks of battle on the Field of Liegnitz; a fine,
clear-flowing, silent kind of man, rapid and steady; with a great deal
of methodic and other good faculty in him,--more, perhaps, than he
himself yet knows of. Him the King has sent for, this morning; and it
is on the business of Polish Majesty's Royal Hunting-Schloss at
Hubertsburg,--which is a thing otherwise worth some notice from us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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