Neither as to intellectual culture, in Duhan's special sphere, and with
all Duhan's good-will, was the opportunity extremely golden. It cannot
be said that Friedrich, who spells in the way we saw, "ASTEURE" for
"A CETTE HEURE," has made shining acquisitions on the literary side.
However, in the long-run it becomes clear, his intellect, roving on
devious courses, or plodding along the prescribed tram-roads, had been
wide awake; and busy all the while, bringing in abundant pabulum of an
irregular nature.
He did learn "Arithmetic," "Geography," and the other useful knowledges
that were indispensable to him. He knows History extensively; though
rather the Roman, French, and general European as the French have
taught it him, than that of "Hessen, Brunswick, England," or even the
"Electoral and Royal House of Brandenburg," which Papa had recommended.
He read History, where he could find it readable, to the end of his
life; and had early begun reading it,--immensely eager to learn, in his
little head, what strange things had been, and were, in this strange
Planet he was come into.
We notice with pleasure a lively taste for facts in the little Boy;
which continued to be the taste of the Man, in an eminent degree.
Fictions he also knows; an eager extensive reader of what is called
Poetry, Literature, and himself a performer in that province by and
by: but it is observable how much of Realism there always is in his
Literature; how close, here as elsewhere, he always hangs on the
practical truth of things; how Fiction itself is either an expository
illustrative garment of Fact, or else is of no value to him. Romantic
readers of his Literature are much disappointed in consequence, and
pronounce it bad Literature;--and sure enough, in several senses, it is
not to be called good! Bad Literature, they say; shallow, barren, most
unsatisfactory to a reader of romantic appetites. Which is a correct
verdict, as to the romantic appetites and it. But to the man himself,
this quality of mind is of immense moment and advantage; and forms
truly the basis of all he was good for in life. Once for all, he has no
pleasure in dreams, in parti-colored clouds and nothingnesses. All his
curiosities gravitate towards what exists, what has being and reality
round him. That is the significant thing to him; that he would right
gladly know, being already related to that, as friend or as enemy;
and feeling an unconscious indissoluble kinship, who shall say of what
importance, towards all that. For he too is a little Fact, big as can be
to himself; and in the whole Universe there exists nothing as fact but
is a fellow-creature of his.
That our little Fritz tends that way, ought to give Noltenius,
Finkenstein and other interested parties, the very highest satisfaction.
It is an excellent symptom of his intellect, this of gravitating
irresistibly towards realities. Better symptom of its quality (whatever
QUANTITY there be of it), human intellect cannot show for itself.
However it may go with Literature, and satisfaction to readers of
romantic appetites, this young soul promises to become a successful
Worker one day, and to DO something under the Sun. For work is of an
extremely unfictitious nature; and no man can roof his house with clouds
and moonshine, so as to turn the rain from him.
It is also to be noted that his style of French, though he spelt it so
ill, and never had the least mastery of punctuation, has real merit.
Rapidity, easy vivacity, perfect clearness, here and there a certain
quaint expressiveness: on the whole, he had learned the Art of Speech,
from those old French Governesses, in those old and new French Books
of his. We can also say of his Literature, of what he hastily wrote in
mature life, that it has much more worth, even as Literature, than the
common romantic appetite assigns to it. A vein of distinct sense,
and good interior articulation, is never wanting in that thin-flowing
utterance. The true is well riddled out from amid the false; the
important and essential are alone given us, the unimportant and
superfluous honestly thrown away. A lean wiry veracity (an immense
advantage in any Literature, good or bad!) is everywhere beneficently
observable; the QUALITY of the intellect always extremely good, whatever
its quantity may be.
It is true, his spelling--"ASTEURE" for "A CETTE HEURE"--is very bad.
And as for punctuation, he never could understand the mystery of it; he
merely scatters a few commas and dashes, as if they were shaken out of a
pepper-box upon his page, and so leaves it. These are deficiencies
lying very bare to criticism; and I confess I never could completely
understand them in such a man. He that would have ordered arrest for
the smallest speck of mud on a man's buff-belt, indignant that any
pipe-clayed portion of a man should not be perfectly pipeclayed:
how could he tolerate false spelling, and commas shaken as out of
a pepper-box over his page? It is probable he cared little about
Literature, after all; cared, at least, only about the essentials of it;
had practically no ambition for himself, or none considerable, in
that kind;--and so might reckon exact obedience and punctuality, in a
soldier, more important than good spelling to an amateur literary man:
He never minded snuff upon his own chin, not even upon his waistcoat and
breeches: A merely superficial thing, not worth bothering about, in the
press of real business!--
That Friedrich's Course of Education did on the whole prosper, in spite
of every drawback, is known to all men. He came out of it a man of
clear and ever-improving intelligence; equipped with knowledge, true in
essentials, if not punctiliously exact, upon all manner of practical
and speculative things, to a degree not only unexampled among modern
Sovereign Princes so called, but such as to distinguish him even among
the studious class. Nay many "Men-of-Letters" have made a reputation for
themselves with but a fraction of the real knowledge concerning men and
things, past and present, which Friedrich was possessed of. Already at
the time when action came to be demanded of him, he was what we must
call a well-informed and cultivated man; which character he never ceased
to merit more and more; and as for the action, and the actions,--we
shall see whether he was fit for these or not.
One point of supreme importance in his education was all along made
sure of, by the mere presence and presidence of Friedrich Wilhelm in
the business: That there was an inflexible law of discipline everywhere
active in it; that there was a Spartan rigor, frugality, veracity
inculcated upon him. "Economy he is to study to the bottom;" and not
only so, but, in another sense of the word, he is to practise economy;
and does, or else suffers for not doing it. Economic of his time, first
of all: generally every other noble economy will follow out of that,
if a man once understand and practise that. Here was a truly valuable
foundation laid; and as for the rest, Nature, in spite of shot-rubbish,
had to do what she could in the rest.
But Nature had been very kind to this new child of hers. And among the
confused hurtful elements of his Schooling, there was always, as we say,
this eminently salutary and most potent one, of its being, in the gross,
APPRENTICESHIP TO FRIEDRICH WILHELM the Rhadamanthine Spartan King, who
hates from his heart all empty Nonsense, and Unveracity most of all.
Which one element, well aided by docility, by openness and loyalty of
mind, on the Pupil's part, proved at length sufficient to conquer the
others; as it were to burn up all the others, and reduce their sour dark
smoke, abounding everywhere, into flame and illumination mostly. This
radiant swift-paced Son owed much to the surly, irascible, sure-footed
Father that bred him. Friedrich did at length see into Friedrich
Wilhelm, across the abstruse, thunderous, sulphurous embodiments
and accompaniments of the man;--and proved himself, in all manner
of important respects, the filial sequel of Friedrich Wilhelm. These
remarks of a certain Editor are perhaps worth adding:--
"Friedrich Wilhelm, King of Prussia, did not set up for a Pestalozzi;
and the plan of Education for his Son is open to manifold objections.
Nevertheless, as Schoolmasters go, I much prefer him to most others we
have at present. The wild man had discerned, with his rugged natural
intelligence (not wasted away in the idle element of speaking and of
being spoken to, but kept wholesomely silent for most part), That human
education is not, and cannot be, a thing of VOCABLES. That it is a thing
of earnest facts; of capabilities developed, of habits established, of
dispositions well dealt with, of tendencies confirmed and tendencies
repressed:--a laborious separating of the character into two FIRMAMENTS;
shutting down the subterranean, well down and deep; an earth and
waters, and what lies under them; then your everlasting azure sky, and
immeasurable depths of aether, hanging serene overhead. To make of the
human soul a Cosmos, so far as possible, that was Friedrich Wilhelm's
dumb notion: not to leave the human soul a mere Chaos;--how much less
a Singing or eloquently Spouting Chaos, which is ten times worse than a
Chaos left MUTE, confessedly chaotic and not cosmic! To develop the man
into DOING something; and withal into doing it as the Universe and the
Eternal Laws require,--which is but another name for really doing and
not merely seeming to do it:--that was Friedrich Wilhelm's dumb notion:
and it was, I can assure you, very far from being a foolish one, though
there was no Latin in it, and much of Prussian pipe-clay!"
But the Congress of Cambrai is met, and much else is met and parted: and
the Kaiser's Spectre-Hunt, especially his Duel with the She-Dragon of
Spain, is in full course; and it is time we were saying something of the
Double-Marriage in a directly narrative way.
END OF BOOK IV,