lstein
Business shall concern us little; but that with Friedrich, during the
brief Six Months allowed him for it,--for it, and for all his remaining
businesses in this world,--is of the highest importance to Friedrich and
us.

Peter is one of the wildest men; his fate, which was tragical, is now
to most readers rather of a ghastly grotesque than of a lamentable and
pitiable character. Few know, or have ever considered, in how wild an
element poor Peter was born and nursed; what a time he has had, since
his fifteenth year especially, when Cousin of Zerbst and he were
married. Perhaps the wildest and maddest any human soul had, during that
Century. I find in him, starting out from the Lethean quagmires where
he had to grow, a certain rash greatness of idea; traces of veritable
conviction, just resolution; veritable and just, though rash. That of
admiration for King Friedrich was not intrinsically foolish, in the
solitary thoughts of the poor young fellow; nay it was the reverse;
though it was highly inopportune in the place where he stood. Nor was
the Holstein notion bad; it was generous rather, noble and natural,
though, again, somewhat impracticable in the circumstances.

The summary of the Friedrich-Peter business is perhaps already known to
most readers, and can be very briefly given; nor is Peter's tragical Six
Months of Czarship (5th JANUARY-9th JULY, 1762) a thing for us to dwell
on beyond need. But it is wildly tragical; strokes of deep pathos in
it, blended with the ghastly and grotesque: it is part of Friedrich's
strange element and environment: and though the outer incidents are
public enough, it is essentially little known. Had there been an
AEschylus, had there been a Shakspeare!--But poor Peter's shocking Six
Months of History has been treated by a far different set of hands,
themselves almost shocking to see: and, to the seriously inquiring
mind, it lies, and will long lie, in a very waste, chaotic, enigmatic
condition. Here, out of considerable bundles now burnt, are some rough
jottings, Excerpts of Notes and Studies,--which, I still doubt rather,
ought to have gone in AUTO DA FE along with the others. AUTO DA FE I
called it; Act of FAITH, not Spanish-Inquisitional, but essentially
Celestial many times, if you reflect well on the poisonous consequences,
on the sinfulness and deadly criminality, of Human Babble,--as
nobody does nowadays! I label the different Pieces, and try to make
legible;--hasty reader