[Born at Berlin, 1712. Died 1786. Aged 74.]
The greatest soldier of his time, and the most famous king that Prussia
has given to her throne. At the commencement of his reign, in 1740, his
dominions contained two and a quarter millions of inhabitants. At the
end of its 46 years, Prussia counted six millions of subjects. He held
the field singly against Russia, Saxony, Sweden, France, and Austria;
and came with honour and rich booty out of the conflict. A great worker,
whether in the field or in the cabinet. His custom was to rise at five
in the morning to read “papers.” These he dispatched with a word or two,
written on the margin: the rest of the day was marked out with exact
precision, a part of it being invariably devoted to literary pursuits,
and to the cultivation of music, of which he was fond. No man ever gave
less of his time to frivolity or inaction. His dress was plain, and
never other than military; his toilet, when he rose, occupied him only a
few minutes; he always wore high jack boots, and he never changed his
dress during the day. An able administrator, a liberal encourager of
art, science, and industry, and the personal friend of D’Alembert,
Condorcet, and Voltaire, with all of whom he personally corresponded.
His conversation was lively and brilliant, not unfrequently sarcastic:
but, in action, he was not cruel. A free thinker, rejoicing in his
intellectual independence. Besides his other acquisitions, he was one of
the guilty sharers in the dismemberment of Poland. Nevertheless, dying,
he left an illustrious name to his country, and a throne to his
successor worthy the acceptance of a European monarch.
[For an account of the admirable and unique monument, by Rauch, of
which this is the life-size model, see No. 195 in Handbook to Modern
Sculpture.]