Excerpt from Historical Memoir of the Last Year of the Life of Frederick II, King of Prussia As I write only for posterity, I shall suffer no restraint from any public or private consideration. I shall Speak out what others have silently expressed; describe princes as they are, without prejudice against my enemies, or prea dileetion towards those with whom I have been in alliance. I shall only speak of myself, when I cannot avoid it; no man, let him be what he may, can greatly draw the atten tion of future ages. Whilst a King is living, he is the idol of his court; the great offer up incense to him; poets celebrate his name; the people fear him, and have but little regard for him: when he dies, the truth comes out; and envy often retaliates with too much rigour on the disgusting eulogies that flattery had heaped upon him. 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.