The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-03-17
LITERATURE.


Of relief We had feared that the old man OF
eighty would have died before he had put a
period TO his long work, before he had placed
Frederick quietly in his tomb. We therefore
are Iglad to see the present volumei but. we
view it rather as book Of reference than as an
addition to the current literature Of the day.
There was a time when Carlyle wrote with
vigorous force-his wild ecCentricities of express
sion, his originality OF phraseology and the
vivid power of comparison and expression
which he exhibited, acted as charms to add
lustre TO his productions. But in his old age he
has degenerated into alIectation. What then
was natural, vivid, and strong is now rapid and
stilted. His complexity has increased and his
force has diminished. It is not our purpose to
enter into an extended criticism Of Carlyle's
style. newspaper review is not field for
such an undertaking; but suffice it to say, that
those who have labored through the preceding
FIVE volumes Will find the last an improvement
in point OF simplicity.
The time of which it treats is the last three
years OF his life. Tho author rambles on with
out any restraint through literature, politics,
war, strategy, and diplomacy. He gives US all
the different views OF his character, and finally
ture of this scene has been before the reading
public for years, we quote that portion OF the
work which terminates the life and concludes
the history of the 'last of the kings:-"
"From San-souci the King did appear again on
horseback; rode out several times ('Coude,'
fine English horse, one Of his .avorltes, carry
ing him-the Conde who had many years of
sinecure afterwards, and was well known tn
Touring people): the rides were short; once to
the New Palace to look at seme new Winery
there, thence to the gates of Potsdam which be
was for entering; but finding masons at work,
and the streets encumbered, did not, and rode
home instead: this, OF not above two miles, was
the longest ride OF all. selie's attendance, less
and less III esteem with the King, and less and
less followed by him, did not quite cease till
June 4; that day the King had said to Selle, or
to himself, 1T is enough That longest of his
rides was in the third week alter, June 22 Mid
summer-Day. July he rode again; and it was
for the last time. About two weeks after Conde
was again brought out; but it would not do
'Adieu my Conde; not possible as things arep
During all this while, and to the very end,
Friedrichs affairs, great and small, we're, in
every branch and item, guided on by him with
perfection not surpassed in his palmiess days;
he saw his Ministers, saw all who had business
with him, many WAC had little; and in the sore
coil OF bodily miseries, as Hertzberg observed
with wonder, never was the Kings intellect
clearer, or his judgment more just and decisive.
OF his disease, except to the doctors, he spoke
no word TO anybody. The body of Friedrich is
a ruin, but his soul is still here; and receives
his friends and his tasks as FORMERLY. Asthma
dropsy, erysipelas, continual loss of sleeps for
many months past he has not oeen In bed, but
sits day and night in an easy chair, unable to
get breath except in that posture. He said one
morning, to somebody entering, If you hap
pened to want nightwatcher, could suit you
well.'
His multiiarious military business comes first;
then his three CLERKS with the civil and poltl-
cal. These three he latterly, instead of calling
about or o'clock, he has had to appoint tor
each morning. My situation forces me- his
message said, to give them this trouble, which
they will not have to suaer long. My life is on
the decline. The time which l still have must
employ; 1t belongs not to me, but 10 the State
About IL, business, followed by short surgical
details or dressings (sadly insisted on in those
books, and in themselves sufficiently sad), being
all done-his friends or daily company are ad-
mtted; five chiefly, or (not counting Minister
Hertzberg) four, Lucchesini, Schwerln, Pinto,
GOrtz; who sit with him about one hour now, and
two hours in the evening agaiR--dreary company
to our minds, perhaps not quite so dreary to the
Kings; but they are all he has left. And he
talks cheeriully with them On literature, his
tory, on the topics of the day, or whatever topic
rises, as il there was no sickness here man
adjusted TO his hard circumstances; and bearing
himself manhke and kinglike among them.
HE well knew himself 10 be dying; but some
think, expected that the end might be little
further OFT. There is q grand simplicity OF sto-
Sec0Hdnature; timely unconscious OF itself, and
fuuing nothing OF peculiar IN this ne trial laid
on 1t. From OF old, life has been in dntelY con-
temptible to him. In death, | think he has
neither fear nor hope. Atheism, truly, he never
could abide; to him, as TO all OF US 1t was haCly
uncomfortable that intellect, moral emotion,
could have been put into HIM by an entity that
had none OF It's own. But there, pretty much,
his Tneism seems to have stopped. Instinct
lively, too, he believed, no man more firmly, that
Right alone has ultimately any strength IN this
world: ultimately, yes-but for hum and mis-
poor brlet interests, what good was it Hope tor
himself in Divine Justice, in Divine Providence,
l think be had not practically any; that the
untathomable Demiurgus should concern him
self with such a SET OF paltry i'll gwen animal
cules as oneself and mankind are, this also as
we have often noticed, is In the main Incredible
to him.
"a sad Greed, this of the King's-he had to do
his duty without fee or reward. Yes, reader
have difficulty TO ind, IN the annals OF aAy
Greed, a King or man who stood more faithfully
to Lis duty; and, till the last hour alone con-
Cerned himself with doing that. To poor Fried
rich that " as all the Law and all the Prophets
and / much recommend you to surpass him, Ii
you, by good luck, have better copy of those
inestimable documents! Inarticuate notions
tancies, transient aspirations ne might have, in
the background OF his mind. One day, sitting
for while out of doors, gazing Into the sun, ne
thee soon'-and, indeed, nobody knows what
his thoughts we're in these nna! months. There
is traceable only complete superiority TO Fear
and Hope; in parts, too, are halfgllmpses OF a
great motonless interior lake OF Sorrow, sadaer
than any tears or complanings, which are alto
gether wanting to 1t.
"Friedrich's dismissal of Jee, June 4, by no
means meant mat he had given up hope from me-
dicne; on the contrary, two days after, he had a
letter on the road tor Htmmermann Mt Hanover
NuIp n "A pttb fayo 1tJc fhar