r they appear in important affairs, are so
admirably exposed, that we see how they inevitably lead States to
disaster and leave them ruins, while their pompous and feeble methods of
doing it are so put as to call forth the contemptuous smiles, yea, the
derisive laughter, of all coming generations. In fine, the alternate
light and shade, which so change the aspect and make the mood of human
nature, were never so touched in before; and therefore it is the saddest
and the merriest story ever told.

In bold and splendid contrast with this picture of national life flow
the life and fortunes of Frederick. If the qualities of his progenitors
prophesied this right royal course, his portrait, by Pesne, shows him
to have been conceived in some happy moment when Nature was in her most
generous mood. What finish of form and feature! and what apparent power
to win! Yet in what serene depths it rests, to be aroused only by some
superb challenger! No strength of thought or stress of situation seems
to have had power to line the curves of beauty. Observe, too, the
full-blown mouth, which never saw cause to set itself in order to form
or fortify a purpose. When it is remembered that in opening manhood this
prince was long imprisoned under sentence of death for attempting to
escape from paternal tyranny, and that his friend actually died on the
gallows merely for generous complicity in this offence against the state
of a king, and that neither of the terrible facts left permanent trace
on his countenance or cloud on his spirit, it should create no surprise
that nothing but the march of time was ever visible there. Though
trained in such a school, and in the twenty-eighth year of his age when
he reached the throne, he yet gave a whole and a full heart to his
subjects, and sought to guide them solely for their good. From this
purpose he never swerved; and though his somewhat too trustful methods
were rapidly changed by stern experience, his people felt more and more
the consummate wisdom of his guidance, and they became unconquerable
by that truth and that faith. Almost on the first day of his reign, he
invited Voltaire, the greatest of literary heroes, the most adroit and
successful assaulter of king-craft and priest-craft that ever lived, to
his capital and to his palace; and in a most friendly spirit consulted
him on the advancement of art and letters, exhausted him by the
touchstone of superior capacity, and even fathomed him by a glanc