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RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY. 175
I was three days at Potfdam. This city has ftill finer houfes in it than thofe at Ber-
lin; but, like thefe, they are inhabited only by perfons of the lower and middling
ranks. The fituation of the town was much extolled to me, and for a country with fo
much famenefs in it as Brandenburg has, it may pafs for a fine one. Neither, how-
ever, the buildiags nor the fituation were the chief objects of my vifit here; what I
came for was to fee the King, who has for fo many years been the god of the Parifian
idolatry, the wonder of all Evrope, the mafter and terror of his foes, and, in fhort,
who throughout all vhe neighbouring ftates is called The King par excellence. 1 was
told that I might very eafily be prefented to him}; but I have always thought it a great
piece of impertinence to think fo lightly of the leifure of a mighty monarch, as to in-
troduce yourfelf to him without the fimalleft pretenfion. I had the good fortune to:
fee him twice on horfeback on the parade, where, however, he ts not fo regular an at-
tendant as formerly.
All the prints I have hitherto feen of him are only half lengths; but there are many
copies of a very good picture, in which he is drawn at full length. You may feen one
ot thefe at Madam S ’s, at Paris, and they are fo common here, that you meet with
them in feveral inns. The original was painted by an Italian, who having been ex-
tremely fortunate in hitting off the likenefs, the King fuffered copies of the picture to
be taken by many good mafters here, and made prefents of them to feveral German
princes, and thus the copies have become common. Heavily as the hand of age now
feems to lie on this immortal man, the very {trong likenefs of the face ftill remains.
The King of Prufiia is hardly of the middling fize, but {trong built and thick fet. His
body is now much bent, and his head fhakes, but his eyes are ftill piercing, and_ roll
about when he is obferving. Peace, order, refolution, and earneftnefs are marked upon
his face. There is likewife that particular look about him which is common to all great
perfonages, and which I fhould call indifference to all that furrounds him, were it not
that you fee evidently, that he takes an uncommon intereft in the things which he con
ceives {pecially to belong to his province. ‘The editor of Voyages en differents Pays de
Europe, Mr. Pilati, fays, that every thing at Berlin and Potfdam 1s carried on in filence,
and that nothing can be known either of the King’s private life, or of his public affairs.
There is an univerfal opinion of the kind gone out about this court: If you will believe
fome Englifhmen, efpecially Mr. Wraxall, the genius which animates the Pruffian mo-
narchy, is a man-hating, light-fhining genius, who in imperceptible darknefs {trikes con-
{tantly at the eftates of the fubjects and lays {nares for them. Itis impoffible to forma
falfer judgment of the King. Mr. Pilati, who contradicts himfeif in more places than
one, fays in another part of his letters, that the King’s hours are fo regularly diftributed,
that at any time you may know what he is then doing. Indeed the true caufe why fo
little is to be faid of the King’s private life, is the great fimplicity and regularity of it.
Here is no minifter to enter into intrigues with, to ruin a man of honour who ftands.
in his way ; no miftrefs whofe humour a man mutt ftudy to get the favourable minute
to obtain a right, or have juftice done him for an injury, or of whofe adventures he
muft keep a regifter, to revenge himfelf on her by bon-mots, epigrams, and anec-
dotes ;—no queen to puzzle and perplex the court every morning with the very great
problem, whether fhe has flept with her hufband or not, whether fhe is breeding or
not, and whether the fafhion will not undergo fome revolution, commanded by Her
Majefty, in the-courfe of the enfuing week. The princes and princefles of the blood
have neither difputes for precedency to fettle, nor cabals to contrive, nor large play
debts to difcharge, nor any of the mighty bufinefles which are the daily occupations of
other courts to difpatch ; the King neither hunts nor goes to balls or theatres (a few
operas
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