rs of German poetry and eloquence have admitted that,
though the great King neither valued nor understood his native language,
though he looked on France as the only seat of taste and philosophy,
yet, in his own despite, he did much to emancipate the genius of his
countrymen from the foreign yoke; and that, in the act of vanquishing
Soubise, he was, unintentionally, rousing the spirit which soon began to
question the literary precedence of Boileau and Voltaire. So strangely
do events confound all the plans of man. A prince who read only French,
who wrote only French, who aspired to rank as a French classic, became,
quite unconsciously, the means of liberating half the Continent from the
dominion of that French criticism of which he was himself, to the end of
his life, a slave. Yet even the enthusiasm of Germany in favor of
Frederic hardly equalled the enthusiasm of England. The birthday of our
ally was celebrated with as much enthusiasm as that of our own
sovereign; and at night the streets of London were in a blaze with
illuminations. Portraits of the Hero of Rosbach, with his cocked hat
and long pigtail, were in every house. An attentive observer will, at
this day, find in the parlors of old-fashioned inns, and in the
portfolios of print-sellers, twenty portraits of Frederic for one of
George the Second. The sign-painters were everywhere employed in
touching up Admiral Vernon into the King of Prussia. This enthusiasm was
strong among religious people, and especially among the Methodists, who
knew that the French and Austrians were Papists, and supposed Frederic
to be the Joshua or Gideon of the Reformed Faith. One of Whitfield's
hearers, on the day on which thanks for the battle of Leuthen were
returned at the Tabernacle, made the following exquisitely ludicrous
entry in a diary, part of which has come down to us: "The Lord stirred
up the King of Prussia and his soldiers to pray. They kept three fast
days, and spent about an hour praying and singing psalms before they
engaged the enemy. Oh, how good it is to pray and fight!" Some young
Englishmen of rank proposed to visit Germany as volunteers, for the
purpose of learning the art of war under the greatest of commanders.
This last proof of British attachment and admiration, Frederic politely
but firmly declined. His camp was no place for amateur students of
military science. The Prussian discipline was rigorous even to cruelty.
The officers, while in the field, were expe