e latter part of the autumn of the same year, he wrote,
"The tears came into my eyes when I opened the books of my poor
departed Jordan, I loved him so much, and it is very painful to me to
think that he is no more." Not long after, the King lost the friend
also to whom this letter was addressed.

The loss of his youthful friends in 1745 made a great wrench in the
inward life of the King. With these unselfish, honourable men died
almost all who made his intercourse with others happy. The relations
upon which he now entered were altogether of another kind: the best of
his men acquaintance only became the intimates of some hours, not the
friends of his heart. The need of exciting intellectual intercourse
remained, indeed it became even stronger. For there was this peculiar
characteristic in him, that he could not exist without cheerful and
confidential relations, nor without the easy, almost unreserved, talk
which through all the phases of his moods, whether thoughtful or
frivolous, touched lightly upon everything, from the greatest questions
of the human race to the smallest events of the day. Immediately after
his accession to the throne, he had written to Voltaire, and invited
him to come to him. Voltaire came, at the cost of much money, for a few
days to Berlin; he gave the King the impression of his being a fool,
nevertheless Frederic felt an immeasurable respect for the talent of
the man. Voltaire appeared to him the greatest poet of all times,--the
Lord High Chamberlain of Parnassus, where the King so much wished to
play a _role_. Ever stronger became Frederic's wish to possess this
man. He considered himself as his scholar; he wished his verses to be
approved of by the master. Among his Brandenburg officers he languished
for the wit and intellect of the elegant Frenchman; there was also much
of the vanity of the Sovereign in this: he wished to be as much a
prince of _bels esprits_ and philosophers as he had been a renowned
General. Since the second Silesia war his intimates were generally
foreigners; after 1750 he had the pleasure of seeing the great Voltaire
established as a member of his court. It was no misfortune that the bad
man only remained a few years among the barbarians.

It was in the ten years from 1746 to 1756 that Frederic gained an
importance and a self-confidence as an author, which up to the present
day is not sufficiently appreciated in Germany. Of his French verses
the Germans can only judge im