Part 8 (1/2)

But such a being as this, one who has turned to adamant in heroic mold, cannot sympathetically comprehend the finer currents about him. There was going on, quite unnoticed by King Frederick, an awakening in the German mind, and while he was building a structure of material greatness, there had commenced, un.o.bserved by him, another structure, which was to be the chief glory of Germany.

The pa.s.sion for speculative thought awakened by Spinoza was stirring the German soul to its depths. Kant had found that Spinoza's _Eternal Order_ must be a _Moral Order_. That the moral instincts which guided mankind, and were the all in all, were the G.o.d in us, the in-dwelling of the Divine. Thus was embodied the essence of Christianity in a new and speculative philosophy.

Klopstock and Lessing were creating a national literature, which revealed for the first time the strength, resources, and unsuspected beauty of their own language, and which was for the first time being used to express a genius untouched by foreign influence.

But all unconscious of this new, rus.h.i.+ng stream of life, Frederick was entertaining Voltaire, spending his evenings in listening to the latest satirical verses of that vain and gifted Frenchman, and laughing at the latest witty epigram from Paris.

It had been one of Frederick's dreams, in his youth, to have his great friend some day reside in his Court. In 1750 this was realized, and the King and the poet settled down to what was to be an everlasting banquet of sympathetic tastes and opinions, seasoned with mutual admiration and friends.h.i.+p!

Frederick felt that he was something of a poet himself, and that he was only prevented by cares of state from letting the world find it out.

The wily Frenchman had been the literary confidant of his royal friend, and many pages of verses had been submitted to him during their long correspondence, and had received flattering commendation from the great critic. So one of the pleasantest features in this closer companions.h.i.+p was expected to be this drop of honeyed praise to sweeten the evening after the day's work was done.

But Frederick's verses bored Voltaire very much, and the royal host began to discover that his great guest was selfish, and cold, and jealous, and even malignant. The nimbus of fascination began to fade.

He could be cutting and satirical as well as Voltaire. The great poet was no less hungry for praise than he, and it was an easy matter to yawn and be bored by his verses, too. And so they became gradually estranged, and finally enemies. They parted in anger, and Voltaire returned to France, to write bitter satires about the King, whose character and ideals he had been one of the chief agents in forming.

There was then in Germany a man whose glory was to outs.h.i.+ne Voltaire's or that of any contemporary in Europe, even as the sun does the stars.

But Frederick's ear could not detect music in his own language, nor was his stunted soul attuned to the native and sublime harmonies of Goethe's genius.

CHAPTER XIII.

There had been a time when two nations in Europe could fight each other to the death without disturbing their neighbors, but since there had developed in the sixteenth century that larger unity of European states, there was no such isolated security.

So when, in 1755, England and France came into collision over the boundaries of their American colonies, the shock was felt all over Europe. Just as the earthquake which swallowed up Lisbon at that very time had made the sh.o.r.es of Lake Ontario tremble, so the peace of Germany, which had lasted for eleven years, was broken by an event in far-off Canada.

The two contending parties, England and France, began after the fas.h.i.+on of the time to look about for allies. Maria Theresa, who had invitations from both countries to join them, was considering which could best serve her own private interests. England, since 1714, had been ruled by Hanoverian kings, which practically annexed her to Hanover. It was by no means sure that she could get a.s.sistance from that nation in recovering Silesia--which was to be the price of her alliance. She decided that her best policy was to secure the aid of Louis XV., who would be glad to help her in her plans against Frederick, in return for the a.s.sistance of Austria in this war with England.

As astute and profound as any statesman in Europe, this wonderful Empress adopted means and methods entirely feminine to carry out her immense design.

She knew that Elizabeth, Empress of Russia, was mortally offended with the King of Prussia, on account of some disparaging remarks he had made about her, so she deftly used that to her own advantage.

Then--perfectly understanding how to reach the enslaved Louis XV.--she wrote a flattering letter to Mme. de Pompadour, then in the full tide of her ascendency over the king.

With the greatest secrecy these negotiations were carried on, and at last the compact between the three great powers was concluded and everything ready to commence a war upon Prussia in the spring of 1757; even to the agreement as to the way in which they should cut up and divide among themselves the kingdom of Prussia!

Frederick, through secret agents, was perfectly well informed of their plans. He saw that his ruin was determined upon, and could only be prevented by unhesitating courage. He determined to antic.i.p.ate them.

Before the allied armies were ready, he made one of his catlike leaps into the neutral territory of Saxony, and was in Dresden, half way to Prague, with seventy thousand men.

This so disconcerted the plans of the allies that there was a pause, and conferences were held, in which it was concluded to ask Sweden to join the coalition. Finally, that almost forgotten body, the Diet of the German Empire, formally declared war against Prussia, and the Third Silesian War, or the Seven Years' War, had commenced.

As the avowed object of this great combination was not the recovery of Silesia but the dismemberment of the kingdom, to deprive Frederick of his royal t.i.tle, and to reduce him to a simple Margrave of Brandenburg, it is easy to see the incentive he had to great deeds.

England and a few small German States were his allies; but, as George II. heartily disliked him, he received small a.s.sistance from him, and stood practically alone with half of Europe allied against him.

There were great victories and great defeats during the seven years which followed. There were times when the cause of Prussia seemed lost, and other times when that of the Allies appeared hopeless. But the tide of victory more often set toward Frederick's standard than that of his adversaries. He defeated the Austrians at Prague; the Imperial and French army at Rossbach; a Russian army at Zorndorf; and these and a hundred other names stand in the annals of Prussia for monumental courage, daring, and sacrifice.

In the confused narrative of advancing and retreating armies, of battles and of slaughter, but one distinct impression remains. That is amazement--amazement that so many thousands were willing at the bidding of one ambitious man to die, to lay down their bodies in that heap of dead, for Prussia's greatness to rise upon! That not one was ready to reproach him for having brought these calamities upon them for the sake of Silesia; but instead, with twenty thousand still lying unburied upon one field, that they respond with infatuated enthusiasm to his appeal for more!

But Prussia owes her rise to just such infatuation as this.