CONCLUDING REMARKS.
WE must leave it to those who have read the preceding pages—mere chronicle of facts as they are, to form their own idea of the character and personality of the Princess.
Still, the disjointed manner in which the whole subject has been treated seems to call for a few more additional remarks.
The world has long been acquainted with the outward appearance of the Princess—with the delicacy of her features, the sweetness of their expression, and the dignity and gracefulness of her every movement. Though so perfectly natural and simple in manner, she never forgot that she was a Princess. While she knew how to encourage and draw out those who, from timidity, kept themselves in the background, she also understood how, in a moment, to check any thing like forwardness, and, where necessary, to silence presumption by a glance.
Her conversation was bright and animated, passing rapidly from topic to topic, but always directed to subjects worth talking about. There was a certain distinction in the way she dealt even with minor matters of daily life. She spoke German with a slightly foreign accent, but with a power of idiomatic expression that seldom failed her, and showed how thoroughly she had mastered the genius of the language.
Occupation was a necessity to her; she could not understand how any one could be idle. When at home, she always had some needlework at hand ready to take up.
The Princess was singularly free from all prejudice, and always endeavored to judge people according to their worth.
It sometimes happened that she offended people by her independent views, but she never knowingly hurt anybody’s feelings; innate generosity was a striking trait in her character.
Frank and sincere herself to an unusual degree, she always encouraged others to be the same, and was most tolerant of well-grounded contradiction.
In times of trouble and danger, when so much was expected of her, her powers seemed to expand. It was in such moments that she really showed the master-spirit, which remains calm and self-possessed when all around lose their heads.
The Princess took the deepest interest in the personal welfare of all around her, even to the humblest of her servants. This interest was shown by many small services, seldom rendered to their servants by masters or mistresses.
With all her appreciation of the purely theoretical and scientific aspect of things, she was naturally of a very practical turn of mind. She had few equals in her love and talent for organizing, for communicating her own ideas to those around her, and in turn being animated by the views of others. Thus it was that she expected not a little from those about her, and might almost have given the impression of a very restless nature, had not this activity been counterbalanced by an unceasing perseverance in carrying out and adhering to what she had once undertaken.
To become acquainted with great men of every profession, whether scholars, artists, or men of science, was a real pleasure to her. She loved to gain an insight into their thoughts and views, and proved herself a very German in her admiration and appreciation of serious scientific work.
Among the arts, music and painting were those she loved the best, and cultivated the most. In both she was far ahead of even distinguished amateurs. Her drawing was free, firm, and bold; she had a decided talent for composition, and was rich in inventive power. She had a wonderful eye for color, and was especially successful in water-colors.
She was an excellent musician, and played extremely well. Few could read and understand difficult pieces at sight as the Princess did. In music, as in all the arts, her taste was rather severe. She had a great predilection for the classical school. Bach, Beethoven, and Schumann, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Brahams were her especial favorites.
In theatrical performances she disliked empty show and splendor—the mere decoration of pieces for the love of decoration. She believed in the ennobling influence of the representation of sound classical works.
Her whole being mentally and morally was concentrated in her children and their education, and in this she showed herself to be a thorough woman. She endeavored to make them feel the worth and greatness of both the nations to which they belonged by birth. She was apt to be more severe in her criticisms of the German mode of education and of moral training than of that of her own country. That this should have been so is easily to be explained. In Germany her life and work were not easy, and she knew that it would take time before her endeavors for the welfare of her adopted country met with recognition, whilst in England, the country of her birth and her affection, to which she clung with ever-increasing reverence and devotion, she knew she was ever becoming more beloved.
Still, being so thoroughly English as she was, we cannot but say that much that was best and finest in her character must be considered as the inheritance of her German father. A nature such as the Princess’ could not help coming in contact with many deep and serious questions, in which religion alone could help her.
The traces of perfect trust in God, and entire submission to His will, will be found throughout her letters. We know that at one time she wavered in her convictions. Although she never doubted the value of practical religion, although she ever turned to her Bible for help and comfort in hours of distress and anxiety, she had to wrestle heart and soul with theoretical doubts. It seems to have been a struggle of many years’ duration, at the commencement and end of which personal influences played a great part.
We are indebted to an intimate friend and relation of Princess Alice’s for the following communication, which is in accord with the observations of others who knew her:
“After her son’s death I thought I observed a change in her feelings. Before that time she had often expressed openly her doubts as to the existence of God—had allowed herself to be led away by the free-thinking philosophical views of others. After Prince Fritz died she never spoke in such a way again. She remained silent while a transformation was quietly going on within, of which I afterwards was made aware, under the influence of some hidden power. It seemed as if she did not then like to own the change that had come over her.
“Some time afterwards she told me herself, in the most simple and touching manner, how this change had come about. I could not listen to her story without tears. The Princess told me she owed it all to her child’s death, and to the influence of a Scotch gentleman, a friend of the Grand Duke’s and the Grand Duchess’, who was residing with his family at Darmstadt.
“‘I owe all to this kind friend,’ she said, ‘who exercised such a beneficial influence on my religious views; yet people say so much that is cruel and unjust of him, and of my acquaintance with him.’ At another time she said: ‘The whole edifice of philosophical conclusions which I had built up for myself, I find to have no foundation whatever; nothing of it is left; it has crumbled away like dust. What should we be, what would become of us, if we had no faith, if we did not believe that there is a God who rules the world and each single one of us? I feel the necessity of prayer; I loved to sing hymns with my children, and we have each our favorite hymn.’[136]
“I remember observing that her table in her room was covered with religious books of all languages. Some of them she recommended to me.”
The German Protestant form of worship did not satisfy her. Her own English liturgy, with its fine simple prayers and benedictions, with its many appointed lessons from Holy Writ—the old Testament especially,—with its sermons confined to a limited time, pleased her more. At the same time she always acknowledged with gratitude and admiration that the great spiritual hero who was the first to demand as a right absolute sincerity in the life of faith, and so brought on the Reformation, was a German.
The Princess had a very wide knowledge of history. Her political opinions were independent, entirely free from party prejudice, and based on the principle she had imbibed from her father—that Princes exist for the welfare of their people.
Future generations must ever acknowledge how the Princess Alice throughout her life strove to fulfil the saying of her favorite hero in history, “the great Fritz” (Frederic the Great, in his “Anaimachiavell”): “The rulers of nations must set the example of virtue to the world.”
