Another sovereign who in his retirement devoted his time to literature was the ex-king Stanislaus Leczinski of Poland, whose works were published in a collected form, a few years after his death, in four quarto volumes, under the title of the “Works of the Beneficent Philosopher.” But there was no special ability in his writings, which were “respectable but not great.” His collection of “Traits of Moral Character for Everyday Life” was perhaps his most amusing and popular work, each trait commencing with “Have the courage to ----,” and as a whole as practically useful as the Golden Rules of King Charles. Thus, as an illustration, Stanislaus writes: “Have the courage to pay your debts at once; to do without what you do not need; to know when to speak and when to be quiet; to set down every penny you spend, and to look at the sum-total weekly; to pass your host’s lackey without giving him a shilling, when you cannot afford it, and more especially when he has not earned it; to face difficulties, which are often like thieves, and run away if you only look at them.” Such are a few illustrations of his Majesty’s traits of moral courage, but unfortunately some of them he neglected himself, and he suffered accordingly. Frederick II. of Prussia was an author, but only an average one. Indeed, as it has been observed, “giving him the credit of all that passes under his name, with the single exception of the ‘Seven Years’ War,’ can it be pretended that of his numerous volumes one would ever have been known to posterity, or more than one ever have found a publisher at all, even in Germany, had they been the works of a private hand? The excepted book has considerable merit, by far its greatest value being derived from the accidental coincidence of the sword and the pen in the same hand.” Little praise can be given to his Majesty’s verses, and his letters are only interesting because of the great men with whom he corresponded, and the stirring events in the midst of which they were written.[159] A work which naturally created considerable notice was Louis XVIII.’s narrative of his escape from France, but in the preface a most candid admission is made, that the work had disappointed all who had expected literary merit in it, that it had destroyed the reputation of the King as an adept in the niceties of the French language, the French critics asserting that it was “vulgarly ungrammatical”; and even the editor “admits that the performance does not place his most Christian Majesty very high in the list of royal authors, as the style is bad, the observations often puerile, and the sentiments far from noble.” The narrative is dedicated in affectionate terms to M. d’Avary, in token of the royal authors lasting gratitude for his services upon the occasion of his escape. But this, whatever merit may be ascribed to it, will, like other similar productions, always be perused with interest from the royal pen which wrote it. CHAPTER XXII ROYAL MUSICIANS