of them,
in the year 1719.

Duhan, independently of his experience in the trenches, appears to have
been an accomplished, ingenious and conscientious man; who did credit
to Friedrich Wilhelm's judgment; and to whom Friedrich professed himself
much indebted in after life. Their progress in some of the technical
branches, as we shall perceive, was indisputably unsatisfactory. But the
mind of the Boy seems to have been opened by this Duhan, to a lively,
and in some sort genial, perception of things round him;--of the strange
confusedly opulent Universe he had got into; and of the noble and
supreme function which Intelligence holds there; supreme in Art as in
Nature, beyond all other functions whatsoever. Duhan was now turned of
thirty: a cheerful amiable Frenchman; poor, though of good birth and
acquirements; originally from Champagne. Friedrich loved him very much;
always considered him his spiritual father; and to the end of Duhan's
life, twenty years hence, was eager to do him any good in his power.
Anxious always to repair, for poor Duhan, the great sorrows he came to
on his account, as we shall see.

Of Graf Fink von Finkenstein, who has had military experiences of all
kinds and all degrees, from marching as prisoner into France, "wounded
and without his hat," to fighting at Malplaquet, at Blenheim, even at
Steenkirk, as well as Stralsund; who is now in his sixtieth year, and
seems to have been a gentleman of rather high solemn manners, and indeed
of undeniable perfections,--of this supreme Count Fink we learn almost
nothing farther in the Books, except that his little Pupil did not
dislike him either. The little Pupil took not unkindly to Fink;
welcoming any benignant human ray, across these lofty gravities of the
OBERHOFMEISTER; went often to his house in Berlin; and made acquaintance
with two young Finks about his own age, whom he found there, and who
became important to him, especially the younger of them, in the
course of the future. [Zedlitz-Neukirch, _Preussisches Adels-Lexikon _
(Leipzig, 1836), ii. 168. _Militair-Lexicon, _ i. 420.] This Pupil, it
may be said, is creditably known for his attachment to his Teachers and
others; an attached and attaching little Boy. Of Kalkstein, a rational,
experienced and earnest kind of man, though as yet but young, it is
certain also that the little Fritz loved him; and furthermore that
the Great Friedrich was grateful to him, and had a high esteem of his
integrity and se