Excerpt from Aus Dem Staat Friedrichs Der Grossen Vergang'enlm't, the series of historical sketches from which the essay before us is taken. In this sketch we have not a detailed account of the facts of Frederick's life; a knowledge of its bare outlines is assumed (we have endeavoured in the Notes to supply necessary information as to facts), and the author directs his attention mainly to the working of his hero's mind, to the gradual building up of that character which came to be the moulding force of the Germany, perhaps even of the Europe, of his day. We use the word hero advisedly, for as such Dr. Freytag shows him to us, yet the essay is by no means blindly laudatory, as is sufficiently proved by the numerous passages in which various features in the character of Frederick and his ancestors are adversely criticised. In addition to the impartial Spirit thus shown, the essay has yet another merit: Dr. Freytag draws attention to one side of Frederick's work, which has been only too much neglected, viz., that of the writer, and especially the historian. A German to the very backbone, yet writing only in French, Frederick has been almost entirely ignored by both French and German writers on literature, and Carlyle in his six volumes finds room only for a few casual and almost contradictory remarks on this point.1 Even in Germany it was not until 1846 that. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.