HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. OF PRUSSIA

FREDERICK THE GREAT

by THOMAS CARLYLE



FREDERICK THE GREAT.

Book I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
1712.

Chapter I.

PROEM: FRIEDRICH'S HISTORY FROM THE DISTANCE WE ARE AT.

About fourscore years ago, there used to be seen sauntering on the
terraces of Sans Souci, for a short time in the afternoon, or you
might have met him elsewhere at an earlier hour, riding or driving
in a rapid business manner on the open roads or through the
scraggy woods and avenues of that intricate amphibious Potsdam
region, a highly interesting lean little old man, of alert though
slightly stooping figure; whose name among strangers was King
FRIEDRICH THE SECOND, or Frederick the Great of Prussia, and at
home among the common people, who much loved and esteemed him,
was VATER FRITZ,--Father Fred,--a name of familiarity which had
not bred contempt in that instance. He is a King every inch of
him, though without the trappings of a King. Presents himself in