EAELY HOME. 35 



rising generation who gave promise of exceeding the prevail- 

 ing mediocrity. It was not Berlin, but Konigsberg, where 

 Kant was inculcating his philosophy, that was destined to be the 

 cradle of the new intellectual life of Grermany. 



At the court of Frederick the Great, the select circle imme- 

 diately surrounding the monarch consisted exclusively of 

 foreigners, for the most part French, who had grown old with 

 him and been his companions through life. They freely in- 

 dulged their taste for the high-flavoured dishes with which the 

 French regaled them, such as the flimsy philosophy of Voltaire, 

 the licentious paradoxes of La Metterie, while they took no 

 cognisance of the movement of thought taking place in Grer- 

 many. The circle that gathered round Prince Henry was dis- 

 tinguished for intellectual brilliancy and sarcastic wit, and was 

 more captivating to younger men, but failed to prove a perma- 

 nent attraction to superior minds. 1 



The higher officials, both civil and military, most of whom 

 were of noble birth, avoided all society that was intellectual 

 and elevating. Those of a lower grade, receiving small salaries, 

 and overwhelmed with official work, found the calls of busi- 

 ness and the necessities of their families too pressing to permit 

 the cultivation of any elevation of sentiment. The wealthier 

 commercial circles were noted only for the luxury in which 

 their families were nurtured, but of true cultivation the ap- 

 pearance even was unattempted. Men of science remained hid 

 in the restricted circles of their own families, and at most met 

 together in the ' Montags-Club,' like the priests of the Samo- 

 thracian mysteries, where the presence of ladies and strangers 

 would have been regarded as a profanation of their sublime 

 revelations. 



It addition to this, the views held by the king on military, 

 political, and administrative subjects were estranging him 

 further and further from the living world around him, and even 

 his vaunted philanthropic principles now showed a new phase, 

 causing the severity of his government, which had not hitherto 

 been burdensome, to be regarded as tyrannical and oppressive. 

 There seemed, in short, to be a tone pervading every class of 



1 Pertz, f Leben des Ministers Freiherrn von Stein/ vol. i. p. 21. 



D 2 



