Friedrich;--though Friedrich unquestionably would have tried, had
the chance offered. For he loved intellect as few men on the
throne, or off it, ever did; and the little he could gather of it
round him often seems to me a fact tragical rather than otherwise.

With the outer Berlin social world, acting and reacting, Friedrich
has his connections, which obscurely emerge on us now and then.
Literary Eminences, who are generally of Theological vesture;
any follower of Philosophy, especially if he be of refined manners
withal, or known in fashionable life, is sure to attract him;
and gains ample recognition at Reinsberg or on Town-visits.
But the Berlin Theological or Literary world at that time, still
more the Berlin Social, like a sunk extinct object, continues very
dim in those old records; and to say truth, what features we have
of it do not invite to miraculous efforts for farther
acquaintance. Venerable Beausobre, with his History of
the Manicheans, [ Histoire critique de
Manichee et du Manicheisme: wrote also
Remarques &c. sur le Nouveau Testament, which were
once famous; Histoire de la Reformation; &c.
&c. He is Beausobre SENIOR; there were two Sons (one of them born
in second wedlock, after Papa was 70), who were likewise given to
writing.--See Formey, Souvenirs d'un Citoyen, italic> i. 33-39.] and other learned things,--we heard of him long
since, in Toland and the Republican Queen's time, as a light of
the world. He is now fourscore, grown white as snow; very serene,
polite, with a smack of French noblesse in him, perhaps a smack of
affectation traceable too. The Crown-Prince, on one of his Berlin
visits, wished to see this Beausobre; got a meeting appointed, in
somebody's rooms "in the French College," and waited for the