There was no man of shining distinction there; but they were the best that could be had, and that is saying all.

Friedrich cannot be said, either as Prince or as King, to have been superlatively successful in his choice of associates.

With one single exception, to be noticed shortly, there is not one of them whom we should now remember except for Friedrich's sake;--uniformly they are men whom it is now a weariness to hear of, except in a cursory manner.

One man of shining parts he had, and one only; no man ever of really high and great mind.
The latter sort are not so easy to get; rarely producible on the soil of this Earth! Nor is it certain how Friedrich might have managed with one of this sort, or he with Friedrich;--though Friedrich unquestionably would have tried, had the chance offered.

For he loved intellect as few men on the throne, or off it, ever did; and the little he could gather of it round him often seems to me a fact tragical rather than otherwise.
With the outer Berlin social world, acting and reacting, Friedrich has his connections, which obscurely emerge on us now and then.