Ombre illustre, ombre chère; âme héroïque et pure;
Toi que mes tristes yeux ne cessent de pleurer,
Quand la fatale loi de toute la nature
Te conduit dans la sepulture,
Faut-il te plaindre ou t'admirer?
Les vertus, les talents ont été ton partage;
Tu vécus, tu mourus en sage;
Et, voyant à pas lents avancer le trépas,
Tu montras le même courage,
Qui fait voler ton frère au milieu des combats.
Femme sans préjuges, sans vice et sans molless
Tu bannis loin de toi la superstition,
Fille de l'imposture et de l'ambition
Qui tyrannise la faiblesse.
Les langueurs, les tourments, ministres de la mo
T'avaient déclaré la guerre;
Tu les bravas sans effort,
Tu plaignis ceux de la terre.
Hélas! si tes conseils avaient pu l'emporter
Sur le faux interêt d'une aveugle vengeance
Que de torrents de sang on eut vus s'arrêter
Quel bonheur, t'aurait dû la France.
Ton cher frère aujourd'hui, dans un noble repos,
Recueillerait son âme, à soi-même rendue;
Le philosophe, le héros,
Ne serait affligé que de t'avoir perdue.
Sur ta cendre adorée, il jetterait des fleurs
Du haut de son char de victoire;
Et les mains de la paix, et les mains de la gloire
Se joindraient pour sècher ses pleurs.
Sa voix célèbrerait ton amitie fidèle,
Les échos de Berlin répondraient à ses chants;
Ah! j'impose silence à mes tristes accents,
Ils n'appartient qu'à lui de te rendre immortelle.
While Wilhelmina's devotion to her brother was absorbing and
self-sacrificing, her friendship to Voltaire was constant and
faithful. And may we not hope that he felt the benefit of a contact
with her more than even appears? One of her letters to him contains in
a few words a statement of the simple Christian faith that was
hers:--"I pity," she says, "your blindness only to believe in one God
and to deny Jesus."
Frederick had erected in his garden at Sans-Souci a temple in memory
of his sister dedicated to "Friendship." Although his life was
darkened by her loss, his subsequent victories and final conquest, and
the peaceful evening of his life, justified the belief she always had
in his greatness and ultimate success.
The Margravine had one child only, the Princess Elizabeth Frederike
Sophie, who afterwards became Duchess of Wurtemburg. Writing of her,
Voltaire says that she was the most beautiful child in Europe, that he
should have recognised her without warning, that she had the turn of
her mother's face with Frederick's eyes. As this lady died childless
the Margravine lives only "in minds made better" by her life; but we
cannot doubt that in many ways her influence still lives, and that the
intellectual life of Germany owes much to her bright and stimulating
example.