ON THE LAST JUDGMENT; handed to Reader De Catt, one evening:--to De
Catt's surprise, and to ours; the Voiceless in a dark Friedrich
trying to give itself some voice in this way! [ OEuvres de
Frederic, xv. 1-10 (see Preuss's PREFACE there;
Formey, SOUVENIRS, i. 37; &c. &c.] Another
Piece, altogether practical, and done with excellent insight,
brevity, modesty, is ON TACTICS; [REFLEXIONS SUR LA TACTIQUE:
in OEuvres de Frederic, xxviii. 153-166.]--
properly it might be called, "Serious very Private Thoughts,"
thrown on paper, and communicated only to two or three, "On the new
kind of Tactics necessary with those Austrians and their Allies,"
who are in such overwhelming strength. "To whose continual
sluggishness, and strange want of concert, to whose incoherency of
movements, languor of execution, and other enormous faults, we have
owed, with some excuse for our own faults, our escaping of
destruction hitherto,"--but had better NOT trust that way any
longer! Fouquet is one of the highly select, to whom he
communicates this Piece; adding along with it, in Fouquet's case,
an affectionate little Note, and, in spite of poverty, some
New-year's Gift, as usual,--the "Widow's Mite [300 pounds, we
find]; receive it with the same heart with which it was set apart
for you: a small help, which you may well have need of, in these
calamitous times." ["Breslau, 23d December, 1758;" with Fouquet's
Answer, 2d January, 1759: in OEuvres de Frederic, italic> xx. 114-117.] Fouquet much admires the new Tactical
Suggestions;--seems to think, however, that the certainly
practicable one is, in particular, the last, That of "improving our
Artillery to some equality with theirs." For which, as may appear,
the King has already been taking thought, in more ways than one.