eak of Odin and Japhet, what hosts of them have
marched across Existence, in that manner;--and where is the memory that
would, even if it could, speak of them all!--

We will hope the mind of our little Fritz has powers of assimilation.
Bayle-Calvin logics, and shadows of Versailles, on this hand, and
gunpowder Leopolds and inarticulate Hyperboreans on that: here is a wide
diversity of nutriment, all rather tough in quality, provided for the
young soul. Innumerable unconscious inferences he must have drawn in his
little head! Prince Leopold's face, with the whiskers and blue skin,
I find he was wont, at after periods, to do in caricature, under the
figure of a Cat's;--horror and admiration not the sole feelings raised
in him by the Field-Marshal.--For bodily nourishment he had "beer-soup;"
a decided Spartan tone prevailing, wherever possible, in the breeding
and treatment of him.

And we need not doubt, by far the most important element of his
education was the unconscious Apprenticeship he continually served to
such a Spartan as King Friedrich Wilhelm. Of whose works and ways he
could not help taking note, angry or other, every day and hour; nor in
the end, if he were intelligent, help understanding them, and learning
from them. A harsh Master and almost half-mad, as it many times seemed
to the poor Apprentice; yet a true and solid one, whose real wisdom was
worth that of all the others, as he came at length to recognize.

Chapter III. -- FRIEDRICH WILHELM IS KING.

With the death of old King Friedrich, there occurred at once vast
changes in the Court of Berlin; a total and universal change in the mode
of living and doing business there. Friedrich Wilhelm, out of filial
piety, wore at his father's funeral the grand French peruke and other
sublimities of French costume; but it was for the last time: that sad
duty once done, he flung the whole aside, not without impatience, and
on no occasion wore such costume again. He was not a friend to French
fashions, nor had ever been; far the contrary. In his boyhood, say
the Biographers, there was once a grand embroidered cloth-of-gold, or
otherwise supremely magnificent, little Dressing-gown given him; but he
would at no rate put it on, or be concerned with it; on the contrary,
stuffed it indignantly "into the fire;" and demanded wholesome useful
duffel instead.

He began his reform literally at the earliest moment. Being summoned
into the apartment where his poor Fat