LETTERS FROM A TRAVELLER AT BERLIN. I t'g 



CONTINUATION OF LETTERS FROM 

 A TRAVELLER AT BERLIN, 



LETTER III* 



Berlin, January 25, 1786. 



YESTERDAY I was at a feftivity which actually 

 filled me with fuch lively emotions, that it can fcarcely 

 be expected I fhould be able to give you an exact ac- 

 count of it. I have frequently been witnefs to the re- 

 joicings given on the birth-days of kings and princes ; 

 have feen the fpectacles, illuminations, and in fhort 

 whatever on fuch occafions are ufually termed demon- 

 fixations of joy. But thefe things have always appeared 

 to me under the idea of etiquette ; and I cannot recol- 

 lect that they ever once prefented themfelves to my 

 mind fo real and fubftantial, fo plainly remote from all 

 hypocrify, as that which I faw on the anniverfary of 

 the birth of the great Frederic^ at Berlin. 



At the very commencement of his reign he excited 

 the admiration of all his fubjects by the fudden and 

 bold refolution he formed of aggrandifing his territo- 

 ries ; and by the excellent inftitutions he made in them 

 during the years of peace from 1746 to 1756 he gained 

 their love; Both thefe fentiments were raifed to their 

 higheft pitch in the feven years war, as the glorious 

 atchievements of the king fpread his fame over all the 

 world, and the repeated dangers to which his perfon 

 was expofed throughout the whole of it, were fufficient 

 to convince his people that they were dearer to him 



1 2 than 



