And Preussen, mown away by death, lies much of it vacant ever
since; which has completed the Crown-Prince's disgust; and,
I believe, did produce some change of ministry, or other
ineffectual expedient, on the old Father's part. Upon which the
Crown-Prince locks up his thoughts again. He has confused
whirlpools, of Court intrigues, ceremonials, and troublesome
fantasticalities, to steer amongst; which he much dislikes, no man
more; having an eye and heart set on the practical only, and being
in mind as in body something of the genus ROBUSTUM, of the genus
FEROX withal. He has been wedded six years; lost two children,
as we saw; and now again he has two living.

His wife, Sophie Dorothee of Hanover, is his cousin as well.
She is brother's-daughter of his Mother, Sophie Charlotte:
let the reader learn to discriminate these two names.
Sophie Charlotte, late Queen of Prussia, was also of Hanover:
she probably had sometimes, in her quiet motherly thought,
anticipated this connection for him, while she yet lived. It is
certain Friedrich Wilhelm was carried to Hanover in early
childhood: his Mother,--that Sophie Charlotte, a famed Queen and
lady in her day, Daughter of Electress Sophie, and Sister of the
George who became George I. of England by and by,--took him
thither; some time about the beginning of 1693, his age then five;
and left him there on trial; alleging, and expecting, he might
have a better breeding there. And this, in a Court where Electress
Sophie was chief lady, and Elector Ernst, fit to be called
Gentleman Ernst, ["Her Highness (the Electress Sophie) has the
character of the merry debonnaire Princess of Germany; a lady of
extraordinary virtues and accomplishments; mistress of the
Italian, French, High and Low Dutch, and English languages,