"Perhaps it will attract moneyed strangers to frequent our
Capital?"--some guess, that was Friedrich's thought. "At all
events, it is a handsome piece of equipage, for a musical King and
People; not to be neglected in the circumstances. Thalia, in
general,--let us not neglect Thalia, in such a dearth of
worshipable objects." Nor did he neglect Thalia. The trouble
Friedrich took with his Opera, with his Dancing-Apparatus, French
Comedy, and the rest of that affair, was very great. Much greater,
surely, than this Editor would have thought of taking; though, on
reflection, he does not presume to blame. The world is dreadfully
scant of worshipable objects: and if your Theatre is your own, to
sweep away intrusive nonsense continually from the gates of it?
Friedrich's Opera costs him heavy sums (surely I once knew
approximately what, but the sibylline leaf is gone again upon the
winds!)--and he admits gratis a select public, and that only.
[Preuss, i. 277; and Preuss, Buch fur Jedermann, italic> i. 100.] "This Winter, 1742-43, was unusually magnificent at
Court: balls, WIRTHSCHAFTEN [kind of MIMIC FAIRS], sledge-parties,
masquerades, and theatricals of all sorts;--and once even, December
2d, the new Golden Table-Service [cost of it 200,000 pounds] was in
action, when the two Queens [Queen Regnant and Queen Mother] dined
with his Majesty."


FRIEDRICH TAKES THE WATERS AT AACHEN, WHERE VOLTAIRE COMES TO SEE HIM.

Months before that of the Opera-House or those Silesian
settlements, Friedrich, in the end of August, what is the first
thing visible in his Domestic History, makes a visit, for health's