Transcriber’s Note:
Cover created by Transcriber and placed in the Public Domain.
HISTORY
OF
FREDERICK THE GREAT.
HISTORY
OF
FREDERICK THE SECOND,
CALLED
FREDERICK THE GREAT.
By JOHN S. C. ABBOTT,
AUTHOR OF “THE HISTORY OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE,”
“THE FRENCH REVOLUTION,”
“NAPOLEON AT ST. HELENA,” ETC.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1871.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
vii
PREFACE.
It is not surprising that many persons, not familiar with the wild andwondrous events of the past, should judge that many of the honest narrativesof history must be fictions—mere romances. But it is difficultfor the imagination to invent scenes more wonderful than can be foundin the annals of by-gone days. The novelist who should create such acharacter as that of Frederick William, or such a career as that of Frederickthe Great, would be deemed guilty of great exaggeration, and yetthe facts contained in this volume are beyond all contradiction.
Mr. Carlyle has written the Life of Frederick the Great in six closelyprinted volumes of over five hundred pages each. It is a work of muchability and accuracy. There are, however, but few persons, in this busyage, who can find time to read three thousand pages of fine type, descriptiveof events, many of which have lost their interest, and have ceased topossess any practical value. Still, the student who has leisure to perusethese voluminous annals of all the prominent actors in Europe duringthe reign of Frederick and of his half-insane father, will find a rich treatin the wonderfully graphic and accurate pages of Carlyle.
This volume is intended to give a clear and correct idea of the man—ofhis public and private character, and of his career. It would be difficultto find, in the whole range of English literature, a theme more full ofthe elements of entertainment and instruction.
The reader of these pages will be oppressed with the consciousness ofhow vast a proportion of the miseries of humanity is caused by the crueltyof man to his brother man. This globe might be a very happy home forthose who dwell upon it. But its history, during the last six thousandyears, has presented one of the most appalling tragedies of which theimagination can conceive. Among all the renowned warriors of thepast, but few can be found who have contributed more to fill the worldwith desolated homes, with the moans of the dying, wit