Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/775

 OF PRUSSIA.] FREDERICK 739 to stoutness, lean in old age, but of vigorous and active habits. An expression of keen intelligence lighted up his features, and his large, sparkling, grey eyes darted pene trating glances at every one who approached him. In his later years an old blue uniform with red facings was his usual dress, and on his breast was generally some Spanish siiuOf, of which he consumed large quantities. He shared many of the chief intellectual tendencies of his age, having no feeling for the highest aspirations of human nature, but submitting all things to a searching critical analysis. Of Christianity he always spoke in the mocking tone of the &quot; enlightened &quot; philosophers, regarding it as the invention of priests ; but it is noteworthy that after the Seven Years War, the trials of which steadied his character, he sought to strengthen the church for the sake of its elevating moral influence. He cannot be truly described as an atheist, for he regarded the world as probably the creation of a demi- urgus, of a demiurgus, however, who could not be sup posed to take interest in the petty affairs of men. In his judgments of mankind he often talked as a misanthrope. H.S was once conversing with Sulzer, who was a school in spector, about education. Sulzer expressed the opinion that education had of late years greatly improved. &quot; In former times, your Majesty,&quot; he said, &quot;the notion being that man kind were naturally inclined to evil, a system of severity prevailed in schools ; but now, when we recognize that the inborn inclination of men is rather to good than to evil, schoolmasters have adopted a more generous procedure.&quot; &quot; Ah, my dear Sulzer,&quot; replied the king, &quot; you don t know this damned race&quot; (&quot;Ach, mein lieber Sulzer, er kennt nicht diese verdammte Race &quot;). This fearful saying unques tionably expressed a frequent mood of Frederick s ; and he sometimes acted with great harshness, and seemed to take a malicious pleasure in tormenting his acquaintances. Yet he was capable of genuine attachments. He was beautifully loyal to his mother and his sister Wilhelmina ; his letters to the duchess of Gotha are full of a certain tender rever ence ; the two Keiths found him a devoted friend. But the true evidence that beneath his misanthropical moods there was an enduring sentiment of humanity is afforded by the spirit in which he exercised his kingly functions. Taking his reign as a whole, it must be said that he looked upon his power rather as a trust than as a source of personal advantage ; and the trust was faithfully discharged accord ing to the best lights of his day. He has often been con demned for doing nothing to encourage German literature ; and it is true that he was supremely indifferent to it. Before he died a tide of intellectual life was rising all about him ; yet he failed to recognize it, declined to give Leasing even the small post of royal librarian, and thought Gotz von Berlichingen a vulgar imitation of vulgar English models. But when his taste was formed, German literature did not exist ; the choice was between Racine and Voltaire on the one hand and Gottsched and Gellert on the other. He survived into the era of Kant, Goethe, and Schiller, but he was not of it, and it would have been unreasonable to ex pect that ha should in old age pass beyond the limits of his own epoch. As Germans now generally admit, it was better that he let their literature alone, since, left to itself, it became a thoroughly independent product. Indirectly he powerfully promoted it by deepening the national life from which it sprang. At a time when there was no real bond of cohesion between the different states, he stirred among them a common enthusiasm ; and in making Prussia great he laid the foundation of a genuinely united empire. In 1846-57 Frederick William IV. caused a magnificent edition of Frederick s writings to be issued by the Berlin Academy, under the supervision of Preuss. It is in 30 volumes, of which 6 contain verse, 7 are historical, 2 philo sophical, and 3 military, 1 2 being made up of correspondence. See Carlyle, History of Fricdrich II, of Prussia ; Droysen, Fried- rich der Grosse (2 vols., Lcipsic, 1874-6, forming Part v. of his Gcschichtc der Prcussischcn Folitik) ; F. Forster, Fricdrich der Grosse, gcschildcrt als Mcnsch, Regent, und Feldherr (4th ed., Berlin, 1860); Rigoilot, Frederic II., Philosophc( Paris, 1875); Schroder, Fricdrich der Grosse in scinen Schriften (3 vols., Leipsic, 1875-76). (J. SI.) FREDERICK WILLIAM II. (1744-1797), king of Prussia, was the nephew of Frederick the Great. His father, Augustus William, the second son of Frederick William I., having died in 1757, Frederick William was nominated by the king successor to the throne. He was of an easy going nature, fond of pleasure, and without the capacity for hard work that characterized his foremost predecessors. His loose mode of life alienated from him the sympathies of his uncle, into whose presence he was not admitted for several years. In the war of the Bavarian succession in 1778, however, he received an expression of approval from Frederick in consequence of an act of personal courage. When he mounted the throne, Prussia held a high place on the Continent ; her military fame was splendid ; and the national finances were in a flourishing condition. The young king had some good impulses, and made himself popular for a time by lightening a few of the burdens of the people, abolishing the tyrannical method of collecting taxes which Frederick had instituted, and encouraging trade. He gave himself up, however, to the advice of unworthy favourites, and soon lost the goodwill both of his subjects and of Europe. For a time he continued the decided policy of his uncle towards Austria, vigorously supporting Turkey against her in 1790. But in the same year he concluded the Reichenbach convention, whereby a nominally good understanding was effected between the two countries, various difficulties being removed during a personal inter view of Frederick William with the emperor Leopold II. at Pillnitz in 1791. In 1792, associating himself with the emperor in the war with France, Frederick William sent across the Rhine an army of 50,000 men under the duke of Brunswick. A separate peace was concluded by Prussia in 1795. The dilatoriness with which he prosecuted this war was due to jealousy respecting the policy of Austria and Russia towards Poland. He had formally recognized in 1790 the integrity of Poland; but in 1793, after a vast amount of intrigue, he took part with Russia in the second partition, gaining thereby what is now called South Prussia, with Dantzic and Thorn. The following year brought the third partition, which extended Prussia from the Niemen to Warsaw. Some time before these partitions, in consequence of an understanding with the margrave, signed December 2, 1791, the king had gained possession of the principalities of Baireuth and Anspach. The size and population of Prussia were thus largely increased under Frederick William II.; but, except in the case of Baireuth and Anspach, he attained his aims by means which the more intelligent class of his subjects did not ap prove, and by his vacillating policy he greatly lowered the state in the esteem of the world. He not only exhausted the resources accumulated by Frederick the Great, but im posed on the country a burden of debt; and he excited much ill-feeling by introducing a severe censorship of the press, and by subjecting the clergy to laws conceived in a spirit of the narrowest orthodoxy. He died on the 16th November 1797. His first wife having been divorced in 1769, he married the Princess Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt, by whom he had five sons. FREDERICK WILLIAM III. (1770-1840), king of Prussia, was the eldest son of Frederick William II., and was born on the 3d August 1770. He was carefully trained under the supervision, in early youth, of his grand-uncle, Frederick the Great. As crown prince he accompanied his father in 1791 to the interview with the emperor at Pillnitz, and in the following year visited with him