well feels it such. All Winter he dwells internally on the
sad matter, though soon falling silent on it to others.

The War is ever more dark and dismal to him; a wearing, harassing,
nearly disgusting task; on which, however, depends life or death. This
Year, he "expects to have 300,000 enemies upon him;" and "is, with his
utmost effort, getting up 150,000 to set against them." Of business,
in its many kinds, there can be no lack! In the intervals he also wrote
considerably: one of his Pieces is a SERMON ON THE LAST JUDGMENT; handed
to Reader De Catt, one evening:--to De Catt's surprise, and to ours; the
Voiceless in a dark Friedrich trying to give itself some voice in this
way! [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xv. 1-10 (see Preuss's PREFACE there;
Formey, _SOUVENIRS,_ i. 37; &c. &c.)] Another Piece, altogether
practical, and done with excellent insight, brevity, modesty, is ON
TACTICS; [REFLEXIONS SUR LA TACTIQUE: in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxviii.
153-166.]--properly it might be called, "Serious very Private Thoughts,"
thrown on paper, and communicated only to two or three, "On the new kind
of Tactics necessary with those Austrians and their Allies," who are
in such overwhelming strength. "To whose continual sluggishness, and
strange want of concert, to whose incoherency of movements, languor of
execution, and other enormous faults, we have owed, with some excuse for
our own faults, our escaping of destruction hitherto,"--but had better
NOT trust that way any longer! Fouquet is one of the highly select,
to whom he communicates this Piece; adding along with it, in Fouquet's
case, an affectionate little Note, and, in spite of poverty, some
New-year's Gift, as usual,--the "Widow's Mite [300 pounds, we find];
receive it with the same heart with which it was set apart for you: a
small help, which you may well have need of, in these calamitous times."
["Breslau, 23d December, 1758;" with Fouquet's Answer, 2d January, 1759:
in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xx. 114-117.] Fouquet much admires the new
Tactical Suggestions;--seems to think, however, that the certainly
practicable one is, in particular, the last, That of "improving our
Artillery to some equality with theirs." For which, as may appear, the
King has already been taking thought, in more ways than one.

Finance is naturally a heavy part of Friedrich's Problem; the part which
looks especially impossible, from our point of vision! In Friedrich's
Country, the War Budget does not differ