st lead me to the supposition that he was one. In the
end he expressed pity for them, that they could not know the sweets
of friendship; and cited on the occasion these verses (his own, I
suppose):--

--'Amitie, plaisir des grandes ames;
Amitie, que les Rois, ces illustres ingrats,
Sont assez malheureux de ne connaitre pas!'--

'I have not the honor to be acquainted with Kings,' said I; 'but to
judge by what one has read in History of several of them, I should
believe, Monsieur, that you, on the whole, are right.'--'AH, OUI, OUI, I
am right; I know the gentlemen!'

"We now got to speak of Literature. The stranger expressed himself with
enthusiastic admiration of Racine. A droll incident happened during
our dialogue. My gentleman wanted to let down a little sash-window, and
could n't manage it. 'You don't understand that,' said I; 'let me
do that.' I tried to get it down; but succeeded no better than he.
'Monsieur,' said he, 'allow me to remark, on my side, that you, upon my
honor, understand as little of it as I!'--'That is true; and I beg your
pardon; I was too rash in accusing you of want of expertness.'--'Were
you ever in Germany?' he now asked me. 'No; but I should like to make
that journey: I am very curious to see the Prussian States, and their
King, of whom one hears so much.' And now I began to launch out on
Friedrich's actions; but he interrupted me rapidly, with the words:
'Nothing more of Kings, Monsieur! What have we to do with them? We will
spend the rest of our voyage on more agreeable and cheering objects.'
And now he spoke of the best of all possible worlds; and maintained
that, in our Planet Earth, there was more Evil than Good. I maintained
the contrary; and this dispute brought us to the end of our voyage.

"On quitting me, he said, 'I hope, Monsieur, you will leave me your
name: I am very glad to have made your acquaintance; perhaps we shall
see one another again.' I replied, as was fitting, to the compliment;
and begged him to excuse me for contradicting him a little. 'Ascribe
this,' I concluded, 'to the ill-humor which various little journeys I
had to make in these days have given me.' I then told him my name, and
we parted." [Laveaux,--Histoire de Frederic--(2d edition, Strasbourg,
1789, and blown now into SIX vols. instead of four; dead all, except
this fraction), vi. 365. Seyfarth, ii. 234, is right; ib. 170, wrong,
and has led others wrong.] Parted to meet agai