it is not surprising that many persons, not familiar with the wild and wondrous events of the past, should judge that many of the honest narratives of history must be fictions—mere romances. but it is difficult for the imagination to invent scenes more wonderful than can be found in the annals of by-gone days. the novelist who should create such a character as that of frederick william, or such a career as that of frederick the great, would be deemed guilty of great exaggeration, and yet the facts contained in this volume are beyond all contradiction.
mr. carlyle has written the life of frederick the great in six closely printed volumes of over five hundred pages each. it is a work of much ability and accuracy. there are, however, but few persons, in this busy age, who can find time to read three thousand pages of fine type, descriptive of events, many of which have lost their interest, and have ceased to possess any practical value. still, the student who has leisure to peruse these voluminous annals of all the prominent actors in europe during the reign of frederick and of his half-insane father, will find a rich treat in the wonderfully graphic and accurate pages of carlyle.
this volume is intended to give a clear and correct idea of the man—of his public and private character, and of his career. it would be difficult to find, in the whole range of english literature, a theme more full of the elements of entertainment and instruction.
the reader of these pages will be oppressed with the consciousness of how vast a proportion of the miseries of humanity is caused by the cruelty of man to his brother man. this globe might be a very happy home for those who dwell upon it. but its history, during the last six thousand years, has presented one of the most appalling tragedies of which the imagination can conceive. among all the renowned warriors of the past, but few can be found who have contributed more to fill the world with desolated homes, with the moans of the dying, with the cry of the widow and the orphan, than frederick the great; but he laid the foundations of an empire which is at this moment the most potent upon the globe.
