That is, all along, a sad element of Friedrich's education! Out of which there might have come incalculable damage to the young man, had his natural assimilative powers, to extract benefit from all things, been less considerable.

As it was, he gained self-help from it; gained reticence, the power to keep his own counsel; and did not let the hypocrisy take hold of him, or be other than a hateful compulsory masquerade.

At an uncommonly early age, he stands before us accomplished in endurance, for one thing; a very bright young Stoic of his sort; silently prepared for the injustices of men and things.

And as for the masquerade, let us hope it was essentially foreign even to the skin of the man! The reader will judge as he goes on.

_"Je n'ai jamais trompe personne durant ma vie,_ I have never deceived anybody during my life; still less will I deceive posterity," [_ Memoires depuis la Paix de Huberrtsbourg,_ 1763-1774 (Avant-Propos), OEUVRES, vii.