¶ Fr: Wm. II (1797-1840), child of the Revolution, to his dying day remained untouched by the new political principles that had their origin beyond the Rhine. Compound of dreams and realities, William had led a repressed life; for one thing, he did not fight for his opinions; indeed his opinions were literary and artistic; a peculiar pietism bound him; he believed too much in man’s natural goodness; being an honest man himself, he did not readily suspect others.
¶ This Frederick was always thinking of a Germany built on the traditional order, with all intervening social grades, from peasant to king upon his throne, each bowing and scraping to the other; and Frederick, as the father of his kingdom, exercising a despotic paternalism.
¶ Nor did he see that the French revolution had been fought and Napoleon’s armies had carried afar if not the seeds of political equality, at least the glorious conception that “revolution means opportunity for men of talents, everywhere.”
¶ The pressure on the king was found in this: that under duress he had promised a written constitution.
¶ And behold Frederick in these troublous times! For eleven long years, off and on, he tries to find a common ground of religious formulas for the united Lutheran and Reformed churches. He even attacks Rome on the question of mixed marriages. Of course, he failed utterly, this noble-minded Hohenzollern who believed too implicitly in the inherent goodness of mankind.
¶ Repair then to your church windows and read your blackletter Bible, you dreaming Frederick; such is your story, in a few words.
Gabble about your Gothic restorations as you will, and your correct revisions of the liturgy, Frederick, it remains for your Louise to do a man’s work against French foes, and thus hasten the slow-coming of United Germany.
¶ In the meantime, Prussia is falling to pieces for lack of the mailed fist. Everything is going to rack and ruin; beloved Prussia repeatedly humiliated by French invaders; and had it not been for noble Queen Louise there might well be no Prussian glory at this hour to record.