degree. Marching towards the Austrian side, towards Silesia, some note. Yes; but also towards Cleve, certain detachments of troops are marching, do not men see? And the Entrenchment at Büderich in those parts, that is getting forward withal,-though privately there is not the least prospect of using it, in these altered oircumstances. Friedrich already guesses that if he could get Silesia, so invaluable on the one skirt of him, he will probably have to give up his Berg-Jülich claims on the other: I fancy he is getting ready to do so, should the time come for such alternative. But he labours at Büderich all the same, and improves the roads in that quarter,'-which at least may help to keep an inquisitive public at bay. These are seven busy weeks on Friedrich's part, and on the world's constant realities of preparation, on the one part, industri. ously veiled; on the other part, such shadows, guessings, spyings, spectral movements above ground and below; Diplomatic shadows fencing, Gazetteer shadows rumouring ;-dreams of a world as if near awakening to something great! All Officers on furlough have been ordered to their posts,' writes Bielfeld, in those vague terms of his : On arriving at Berlin, you notice a great agitation in all departments of the State. The regiments are ordered to prepare their equipages, and to hold themselves in readiness for marching. There are magazines being formed at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder and at Crossen,'-handy for Silesia, you would say? There are considerable trains of Artillery getting ready; and the King has frequent conferences with his Generals.' The authentic fact is; By the middle of November, Troops, to the extent of 30,000 and more, had got orders to be ready for marching in three weeks hence;' their public motions very visible ever since, their actual purpose a mystery to all mortals except Three. "Towards the end of November, it becomes the prevailing guess that the business is immediate, not prospective; that Silesia may be in the wind, not Jülich and Berg. Which infinitely quickens the shadowy rumourings and Diplomatic fencings of mankind. The French have their special Ambassador here; a Marquis de Beauvau, observant military gentleman, who came with the Accession Compliment some time ago, and keeps his eyes well open, but cannot see through millstones. Fleury is intensely desirous to know Friedrich's secret; but would fain keep his own (if he yet have one), and is himself quite tacit and reserved. To Fleury's Marquis de Beauvau Friedrich is very gracious; but in regard to secrets, is for a reciprocal procedure. Could not Voltaire go and try? It is thought Fleury had let fall some hint to that effect, carried by a bird of the air. Sure enough Voltaire does go; is actually on visit to his royal Friend; six days with him at Reinsberg; perhaps near a fortnight in all (20 November-2 December or so), hanging about these Berlin regions, on the survey. Here is an unexpected pleasure to the parties; but in regard to penetrating of secrets, an unproductive one! "Voltaire's ostensible errand was to report progress about the Anti-Macchiavel, the Van Duren nonsense; and, at any rate, to settle the money accounts on these and other scores; and to discourse Philosophies, for a day or two, with the First of Men. The real errand, it is pretty clear, was as above. Voltaire has always a wistful eye towards political employment, and would fain make himself useful in high quarters. Fleury and he have their touches of direct Correspondence now and then and obliquely, there are always intermediates and channels. Small hint, the slightest twinkle of Fleury's eyelashes, would be duly speeded to Voltaire, and set him going. We shall see him expressly missioned hither, on similar errand, by and by; though with as bad success as at present. : 6 "Of this his First Visit to Berlin, his Second to Friedrich, Voltaire in the Vie Privée says nothing. But in his Siècle de Louis XV, he drops, with proud modesty, a little foot-note upon it: The Author was with the King of Prussia at that time; and can affirm that Cardinal de Fleury was totally astray in regard to the Princə he had now to do with.' To which a date slightly wrong is added; the rest being perfectly correct. No other details are to be got anywhere, if they were of importance; the very dates of it in the best Prussian Books are all slightly awry. Here, by accident, are two poor flint-sparks caught from the dust whirlwind, which yield a certain sufficing twilight, when put in their place; and show us both sides of the matter, the smooth side and the seamy: "1. Friedrich to Algarotti, at Berlin. From Reinsberg, 21st of Nov.,' showing the smooth side. "My dear Swan of Padua, Voltaire has arrived; all sparkling with new beauties, and far more sociable than at Cleve. He is in very good humour; and makes less complaining about his ailments than usual. Nothing can be more frivolous than our occupations here mere verse-making, dancing, philosophising, then card-playing, dining, flirting; merry as birds on the bough (and Silesia invisible, except to oneself and two others). “2. Friedrich to Jordan, at Berlin. Ruppin, 28th November.' ** "Thy Miser' (Voltaire, now gone to Berlin, of whom Jordan is to send news, as of all things else), thy Miser shall drink to the lees of his insatiable desire (sic) to enrich himself: be shall have the 3,000 thalers (4501.). He was with me six days: that will be at the rate of 150 thalers (757.) a-day. That is paying dear for one's merry-andrew (c'est bien payer un fou); never had court-fool such wages before.' "Which latter, also at first hand, shows us the seamy side. And here, finally, with date happily appended, is a poetic snatch, in Voltaire's exquisite style, which with the response gives us the medium view : "Voltaire's Adieu (Billet de Congé, 2 December 1740). "Non, malgré vos vertus, non, malgré vos appas, Non, vous n'êtes qu'une coquette, "Mon áme sent le prix de vos divins appas; ་ -Meaning, perhaps, in brief English: V. Ah, you are but a beautiful coquette; you charm away our hearts, and do not give your own' (Won't tell me your secret at all)! F. Treacherous Lothario, it is you that quit me for a coquette' (your divine Emilie; and won't stay here, and be of my Academy); but however-Friedrich looked hopingly on the French, but could not give his secret except by degrees and with reciprocity. Some days hence he said to Marquis de Beauvau, in the Audience of leave, a word which was remembered." Vol. iii. pp. 140-149. The nature of the foregoing extracts, we are quite sure, affords sufficient apology for their unusual length; Mr. Carlyle's works do not, in fact, suggest much in the way of historical or philosophical speculation. No deep thought ever yet exhibited itself in so fantastic a shape: indeed, the thing seems impossible a priori, or if not impossible a priori, certainly unknown to human experience. Strength of body shows itself in depth of chest, breadth of shoulder, and swelling brawn; strength of thought displays itself in language not less regular and steady than it is bold and masculine. There seems to us to be the same difference between a strong thinker and Mr. Carlyle, that there is between an athlete and an acrobat. We are all, however, governed by taste and circumstances. Goldsmith somewhere says, we believe in the Citizen of the World, that the same study which a man applies to balancing a pipe upon his nose, or to swallowing swords, would, if otherwise directed, enable him to raise works of genius or to create empires. It may be that Mr. Carlyle had sufficient robustness of mind to be developed into real strength by wholesome exercise. His thews might have become those of a giant, had he chosen to try them with the caestus and the quoit, rather than with the tight rope and the balancing pole. He might possibly have delivered serious utterances if he had trained himself to do so, but if he prefer to crack his whip in the circus, and to jibe at the bystanders, the republic of letters is free, and he has a right to his choice. Οὐ γὰρ πύγμαχοι ἐιμὲν ἀμύμονες ουδὲ παλαισταὶ Such we take to be Mr. Carlyle's function in letters, and especially in history. There are those, however, it must be admitted, who not only admire Mr. Carlyle, which they would be perfectly entitled to do, and in which we heartily join them, as a kind of intellectual Blondin, but who look upon himself as an actual historian, and upon his works as books of authority. It would be as serious a matter to reason with persons of this class as with Mr. Carlyle himself, and so they may be left to their enjoyment. The present volume includes but a small portion of the reign of Frederick II.,-not more, in truth, than the four first years, nor the whole of those, because it does not reach the second Silesian war. The portion, however, to which it does extend, is quite sufficiently important for the space assigned to it, according to Mr. Carlyle's style of treatment, and we hardly know how it will be possible for him to deal, even in the next volume, with all the great events which crowd into the life of Frederick, between 1744 and 1786. The treaty of Breslau terminating the first Silesian war is stated in substance at p. 586, and the remaining pages, something short of two hundred, embrace the interval between the date of the treaty and August 1744. In the next volume we presume the short campaign of 1744-5, followed by the treaty of Dresden, will be summarily disposed of, and Mr. Carlyle will dance and spin along with a kind of frenzy through the following ten years, during which Frederick, Voltaire, Diderot, and D'Alembert, made bad morals worse by very evil communications. It will not be too bold a conjecture to suppose that the seven years war will afford to Mr. Carlyle and his readers the peculiar kind of fun which he contrives to draw from wars, deaths, and other calamities; and we are greatly mistaken, or the share which was borne by Frederick in the partition of Poland will be adopted without straining or squeamishness of any sort by his historian. It would be too much to expect that he should condescend to vindicate it. Mr. Carlyle's Volumes will always be read by many, and relished by not a few; but the curiosity with which men formerly awaited the arrival of each new-born monster has greatly diminished. Familiarity has bred not exactly contempt, but apathy; men have ceased to wonder, and have begun to calculate. They are ready to wager that each coming volume will embody certain conclusions, and have certain features, and if any one were to take the bet, the winner would not be doubtful. "Grove nods to grove, each alley has its brother, ART. VI.-1. Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa; with accounts of the Manners and Customs of the People, and of the chace of the Gorilla, Crocodile, Elephant, Hippopotamus, and other Animals. By Paul B. du Chaillu. With map and illustra tions. London: John Murray. 1861. 2. Egypt, the Soudan, and Central Africa, with Explorations from Khartoum, on the White Nile, to the Regions of the Equator, being Sketches from Sixteen Years' Travel. By John Petherick, F.R.G.S., her Britannic Majesty's Consul for the Soudan. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons. 1861. 3. Mrs. Petherick's African Journal, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. DLX., June, 1862. Τ IT is related of Donizetti that he felt the deepest gratif. cation when first he heard the delicious serenade "Com'é gentil" played by a street-organ; and turning to a friend, who was with him, he said, in a tone of genuine earnestness, "This is true popularity." This pithy sentiment of the great composer is, we believe, only an expression of a wide and incontestable principle-that the appre ciation of the multitude is, after all, the only reliable test of the fitness of those things, which are either intended for their use, or placed by nature within their comprehension. The judgment of a brother craftsman, of a Weber or a Rossini, might best guide him in the arrangement of some intricate passage of harmony, so as to produce the most |