rodoxies;--and
summoned the Crown-Prince, by express, from Reinsberg, on one occasion
lately, over to Potsdam, "to take the Communion" there, by way of
case-hardening against Voltaire and Heterodoxies! Think of it, human
readers!--We will add the following stray particulars, more or less
illustrative of the Masonic Transaction; and so end that trifling
affair.

The Captain Wartensleben, fellow-recipient of the mysteries at
Brunswick, is youngest son, by a second marriage, of old Feldmarschall
Wartensleben, now deceased; and is consequently Uncle, Half-Uncle, of
poor Lieutenant Katte, though some years younger than Katte would now
have been. Tender memories hang by Wartensleben, in a silent way! He
is Captain in the Potsdam Giants; somewhat an intimate, and not
undeservedly so, of the Crown-Prince;--succeeds Wolden as Hofmarschall
at Reinsberg, not many months after this; Wolden having died of an
apoplectic stroke. Of Bielfeld comes a Book, slightly citable; from
no other of the Brethren, or their Feat at Kern's, comes (we may say)
anything whatever. The Crown-Prince prosecuted his Masonry, at Reinsberg
or elsewhere, occasionally, for a year or two; but was never ardent
in it; and very soon after his Accession, left off altogether:
"Child's-play and IGNIS FATUUS mainly!" A Royal Lodge was established at
Berlin, of which the new King consented to be patron; but he never once
entered the place; and only his Portrait (a welcomely good one, still
to be found there) presided over the mysteries in that Establishment.
Harmless "fire," but too "fatuous;" mere flame-circles cut in the air,
for infants, we know how!--

With Lippe-Buckeburg there ensued some Correspondence, high enough on
his Serenity's side; but it soon languished on the Prince's side; and
in private Poetry, within a two years of this Brunswick scene, we find
Lippe used proverbially for a type-specimen of Fools. ["Taciturne,
Caton, avec mes bons parents, Aussi fou que la Lippe met les jeunes
gens." _OEuvres,_ xi. 80 (_Discours sur la Faussete,_ written 1740).]
A windy fantastic individual;--overwhelmed in finance-difficulties too!
Lippe continued writing; but "only Secretaries now answered him" from
Berlin. A son of his, son and successor, something of a Quixote too, but
notable in Artillery-practice and otherwise, will turn up at a future
stage.

Nor is Bielfeld with his Book a thing of much moment to Friedrich or to
us. Bielfeld too has a light airy vein of