were, in what manner known; and how, in a more complex crisis than
had yet been, Friedrich demeaned himself: upon which latter point,
and those cognate to it, readers ought not to be ignorant, if now
fallen indifferent on so many other points of the Affair. What a
loud-roaring, loose and empty matter is this tornado of
vociferation which men call "Public Opinion"! Tragically howling
round a man; who has to stand silent the while; and scan, wisely
under pain of death, the altogether inarticulate, dumb and
inexorable matter which the gods call Fact! Friedrich did read his
terrible Sphinx-riddle; the Gazetteer tornado did pipe and blow.
King Friedrich, in contrast with his Environment at that time, will
most likely never be portrayed to modern men in his real
proportions, real aspect and attitude then and there,--which are
silently not a little heroic and even pathetic, when well seen
into;--and, for certain, he is not portrayable at present, on our
side of the Sea. But what hints and fractions of feature we
authentically have, ought to be given with exactitude, especially
with brevity, and left to the ingenuous imagination of readers.

The secret sources of the Third Silesian War, since called "Seven-
Years War," go back to 1745; nay, we may say, to the First Invasion
of Silesia in 1740. For it was in Maria Theresa's incurable sorrow
at loss of Silesia, and her inextinguishable hope to reconquer it,
that this and all Friedrich's other Wars had their origin.
Twice she had signed Peace with Friedrich, and solemnly ceded
Silesia to him: but that too, with the Imperial Lady, was by no
means a finis to the business. Not that she meant to break her
Treaties; far from her such a thought,--in the conscious form.
Though, alas, in the unconscious, again, it was always rather near!
practically, she reckoned to herself, these Treaties would come to