out the royal permission. If the permission were granted, the pocket
money of the tourist was fixed by royal ordinance. A merchant might take
with him two hundred and fifty rix-dollars in gold, a noble was allowed
to take four hundred; for it may be observed, in passing, that Frederic
studiously kept up the old distinction between the nobles and the
community. In speculation, he was a French philosopher, but in action, a
German prince. He talked and wrote about the privileges of blood in the
style of Sieyes; but in practice no chapter in the empire looked with a
keener eye to genealogies and quarterings.

Such was Frederic the Ruler. But there was another Frederic,--the
Frederic of Rheinsberg, the fiddler and flute-player, the poetaster and
metaphysician. Amidst the cares of state the King had retained his
passion for music, for reading, for writing, for literary society. To
these amusements he devoted all the time that he could snatch from the
business of war and government; and perhaps more light is thrown on his
character by what passed during his hours of relaxation than by his
battles or his laws.

It was the just boast of Schiller that, in his country, no Augustus, no
Lorenzo, had watched over the infancy of poetry. The rich and energetic
language of Luther, driven by the Latin from the schools of pedants, and
by the French from the palaces of kings, had taken refuge among the
people. Of the powers of that language Frederic had no notion. He
generally spoke of it, and of those who used it, with the contempt of
ignorance. His library consisted of French books; at his table nothing
was heard but French conversation. The associates of his hours of
relaxation were, for the most part, foreigners. Britain furnished to the
royal circle two distinguished men, born in the highest rank, and driven
by civil dissensions from the land to which, under happier
circumstances, their talents and virtues might have been a source of
strength and glory. George Keith, Earl Marischal of Scotland, had taken
arms for the House of Stuart in 1715; and his younger brother James,
then only seventeen years old, had fought gallantly by his side. When
all was lost they retired together to the Continent, roved from country
to country, served under various standards, and so bore themselves as to
win the respect and good will of many who had no love for the Jacobite
cause. Their long wanderings terminated at Potsdam; nor had Frederic any
associate