CARLYLE. 187 



generous fashion, some rather keen comments of hers on 

 her brother s character when she visited Berlin after he 

 had become king. Indeed, he is apt to deal rather con 

 temptuously with all adverse criticism of his hero. We 

 sympathise with his impulse in this respect, agreeing 

 heartily as we do in Chaucer s scorn of those who &quot; gladlie 

 demen to the baser end &quot; in such matters. But we are not 

 quite sure if this be a safe method with the historian. He 

 must doubtless be the friend of his hero if he would under 

 stand him, but he must be more the friend of truth if he 

 would understand history. Mr. Carlyle s passion for truth 

 is intense, as befits his temper, but it is that of a lover for 

 his mistress. He would have her all to himself, and has a 

 lover s conviction that no one is able, or even fit, to 

 appreciate her but himself. He does well to despise the 

 tittle-tattle of vulgar minds, but surely should not ignore 

 all testimony on the other side. For ourselves, we think it 

 not unimportant that Goethe s friend Knebel, a man not 

 incapable of admiration, and who had served a dozen years 

 or so as an officer of Friedrich s guard, should have bluntly 

 called him &quot; the tyrant.&quot; 



Mr. Carlyle s history traces the family of his hero down 

 from its beginnings in the picturesque chiaro-scuro of the 

 Middle Ages. It was an able, and, above all, a canny 

 house, a Scotch version of the word able, which implies 

 thrift and an eye to the main chance, the said main chance 

 or chief end of man being altogether of this world. Fried- 

 rich, inheriting this family faculty in full measure, was 

 driven, partly by ambition, partly by necessity, to apply it 

 to war. He did so, with the success to be expected where 

 a man of many expedients has the good luck to be opposed 

 by men with few. He adds another to the many proofs 

 that it is possible to be a great general without a spark of 

 that divine fire which we call genius, and that good fortune 

 in war results from the same prompt talent and unbending 

 temper which lead to the same result in the peaceful pro 

 fessions. Friedrich had certainly more of the temperament 

 of genius than Marlborough or Wellington ; but not to go 



