Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1842-07-21
From the Edinburgh Review.
Frederick the Great.

Frederick, surnamed the Great, son
of Frederick William, was born in jan
uary, 1712. 1t may safely be pro-
nounced that he had received from ma
lure strong and sharp understanding,
and a rare frmness of character and
intensity of will. AS to the other parts
of his character, it is difficult to say
whether they are to be ascribed to ma
ture, or to the strange training which
he underwent The history of his boy
hood is painfully interesting. Oliver
Twist in the parish workhouse, Smille
at Dotheboys Hall, were petted chill
dren when compared with this wretch
ed heir-apparent of crown. The ma
ture of Frederick William was hard
and bad, and the habit Of exercising
arbitrary power had made him fearfully
savage. His rage constantly vented
itself to right and left in curses and
blows. When his majesty took walk
every human being fled before him, as
if tiger had broken loose from the
menagerle. IF he met a lady in the
streets, he gave her a kick, and told
her to go home and mind her brats. If
he saw clergyman starting at the SOL
diers, he admonished the reyerned
gentleman to betake himself to study
and prayer, and enforced this pious ad-
vice by sound Gaming, administered
on the spot. But it was in his own
house that he was most unreasonable
and ferocious. His palace was he'll,
and he the most execrable of fends-
cross between Molock and Puck
His son Frederick and his daughter
Wilhelmina, after Margarine Of Baru-
eth, were in an especial manner objects
of his aversion. His own mind was
uncultivated. He despised literature.
He hated inidels, papists, and meta
physicians, and did not very well I'M
derstand in what they differed from
each other. The business Of life, ac-
cording to him, was to drill and be
drilled. The recreations suited to a
prince, were to sit in cloud of tobac-
co-smoke, to sip Swedish beer between
the puffs of the. pipe, to play back-gam-
mon for three half-penee rubber, to
kill wild hogs, and to shoot partridges
by the thousand. The Prince ROYAL
showed little inclination either for the
serious emploYments or the amuse-
ments of his father. He shirked the
duties of the parade-he detested the
fume Of the tobacco-he had no taste
for backgammon OF for field SPORTS
He had received from nature an exqui-
site ear, and performed skilfully on tue
Ae. His earliest instructors were
Efsnch refugees, and they awakened
r. him a strong passion for French lit
erat,,re and French society. Frederick
William regarded these tastes as effem-
mate and contemplate, and, by abuse
and persecution, made them still stron-
ger. Things became worse when the Pr
nee ROYAL attained that time OF life at
which the greater revolution in the hu-
,nanmind and body takes place. He was
ouilty of some youthful indiscretions,
Which no good and wise parent would
regard with severity. At a later peri
I'd he was accused, truly or falsely, Of
ices from which History averts her
anes and which even satire bushes to
a.me-yices such that, 10 borrow the
energetic language of Lord-Keeper
Coventry, ssthe depraved nature Of
nan which of itself carrieth man to all
thor sim abhorreth them But the
Offences Of his youth were not charac-
.erised by any peculiar turpitude. They
xc;ted however, transports OF rage IN