History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 11 [5]
negotiate. "All reasonable conditions shall be granted"
the immortal Wolf,--and Friedrich adds with his own hand as
Postscript: "I request you (IHN) to use all diligence about Wolf.
A man that seeks truth, and loves it, must be reckoned precious in
any human society; and I think you will make a conquest in the
realm of truth if you persuade Wolf hither again." [In
OEuvres de Frederic (xxvii. ii. 185), the Letter
given.] This is of date June 6th; not yet a week since Friedrich
came to be King. The Reinbeck-Wolf negotiation which ensued can be
read in Busching by the curious. [Busching's Beitrage
(? Freiherr von Wolf), i. 63-137.] It represents to
us a croaky, thrifty, long-headed old Herr Professor, in no haste
to quit Marburg except for something better: "obliged to wear
woollen shoes and leggings;" "bad at mounting stairs;" and
otherwise needing soft treatment. Willing, though with caution, to
work at an Academy of Sciences;--but dubious if the French are so
admirable as they seem to themselves in such operations.
Veteran Wolf, one dimly begins to learn, could himself build a
German Academy of Sciences, to some purpose, if encouraged!
This latter was probably the stone of stumbling in that direction.
Veteran Wolf did not get to be President in the New Academy of
Sciences; but was brought back, "streets all in triumph," to his
old place at Halle; and there, with little other work that was
heard of, but we hope in warm shoes and without much mounting of
stairs, lived peaceably victorious the rest of his days.
Friedrich's thoughts are not of a German home-built Academy, but
of a French one: and for this he already knows a builder;
has silently had him in his eye, these two years past,--Voltaire
giving hint, in the LETTER we once heard of at Loo. Builder shall
be that sublime Maupertuis; scientific lion of Paris, ever since
his feat in the Polar regions, and the charming Narrative he gave
of it. "What a feat, what a book!" exclaimed the Parisian
cultivated circles, male and female, on that occasion;
and Maupertuis, with plenty of bluster in him carefully
suppressed, assents in a grandly modest way. His Portraits are in
the Printshops ever since; one very singular Portrait, just coming
out (at which there is some laughing): a coarse-featured,
blusterous, rather triumphant-looking man, blusterous, though
finely complacent for the nonce; in copious dressing-gown and fur
cap; comfortably SQUEEZING the Earth and her meridians flat (as if
HE had done it), with his left hand; and with the other, and its
outstretched finger, asking mankind, "Are not you aware, then?"--
"Are not we!" answers Voltaire by and by, with endless waggeries
upon him, though at present so reverent. Friedrich, in these same
days, writes this Autograph; which who of men or lions
could resist?
TO MONSIEUR DE MAUPERTUIS, at Paris.
(No date;--datable, June, 1740.)
"My heart and my inclination excited in me, from the moment I
mounted the throne, the desire of having you here, that you might
put our Berlin Academy into the shape you alone are capable of
giving it. Come, then, come and insert into this wild crab-tree
the graft of the Sciences, that it may bear fruit. You have shown
the Figure of the Earth to mankind; show also to a King how sweet
it is to possess such a man as you.
"Monsieur de Maupertuis,--votre tres-affectionne
"FEDERIC" (SIC).
[ OEuvres, xvii. i. 334. The fantastic
"Federic," instead of "Frederic," is, by this time, the common
signature to French Letters.]
This Letter--how could Maupertuis prevent some accident in such a
case?--got into the Newspapers; glorious for Friedrich, glorious
for Maupertuis; and raised matters to a still higher pitch.
Maupertuis is on the road, and we shall see him before long.
AND EVERY ONE SHALL GET TO HEAVEN IN HIS OWN WAY.
Here is another little fact which had immense renown at home and
abroad, in those summer months and long afterwards.
June 22d, 1740, the GEISTLICHE
the immortal Wolf,--and Friedrich adds with his own hand as
Postscript: "I request you (IHN) to use all diligence about Wolf.
A man that seeks truth, and loves it, must be reckoned precious in
any human society; and I think you will make a conquest in the
realm of truth if you persuade Wolf hither again." [In
OEuvres de Frederic
given.] This is of date June 6th; not yet a week since Friedrich
came to be King. The Reinbeck-Wolf negotiation which ensued can be
read in Busching by the curious. [Busching's
us a croaky, thrifty, long-headed old Herr Professor, in no haste
to quit Marburg except for something better: "obliged to wear
woollen shoes and leggings;" "bad at mounting stairs;" and
otherwise needing soft treatment. Willing, though with caution, to
work at an Academy of Sciences;--but dubious if the French are so
admirable as they seem to themselves in such operations.
Veteran Wolf, one dimly begins to learn, could himself build a
German Academy of Sciences, to some purpose, if encouraged!
This latter was probably the stone of stumbling in that direction.
Veteran Wolf did not get to be President in the New Academy of
Sciences; but was brought back, "streets all in triumph," to his
old place at Halle; and there, with little other work that was
heard of, but we hope in warm shoes and without much mounting of
stairs, lived peaceably victorious the rest of his days.
Friedrich's thoughts are not of a German home-built Academy, but
of a French one: and for this he already knows a builder;
has silently had him in his eye, these two years past,--Voltaire
giving hint, in the LETTER we once heard of at Loo. Builder shall
be that sublime Maupertuis; scientific lion of Paris, ever since
his feat in the Polar regions, and the charming Narrative he gave
of it. "What a feat, what a book!" exclaimed the Parisian
cultivated circles, male and female, on that occasion;
and Maupertuis, with plenty of bluster in him carefully
suppressed, assents in a grandly modest way. His Portraits are in
the Printshops ever since; one very singular Portrait, just coming
out (at which there is some laughing): a coarse-featured,
blusterous, rather triumphant-looking man, blusterous, though
finely complacent for the nonce; in copious dressing-gown and fur
cap; comfortably SQUEEZING the Earth and her meridians flat (as if
HE had done it), with his left hand; and with the other, and its
outstretched finger, asking mankind, "Are not you aware, then?"--
"Are not we!" answers Voltaire by and by, with endless waggeries
upon him, though at present so reverent. Friedrich, in these same
days, writes this Autograph; which who of men or lions
could resist?
TO MONSIEUR DE MAUPERTUIS, at Paris.
(No date;--datable, June, 1740.)
"My heart and my inclination excited in me, from the moment I
mounted the throne, the desire of having you here, that you might
put our Berlin Academy into the shape you alone are capable of
giving it. Come, then, come and insert into this wild crab-tree
the graft of the Sciences, that it may bear fruit. You have shown
the Figure of the Earth to mankind; show also to a King how sweet
it is to possess such a man as you.
"Monsieur de Maupertuis,--votre tres-affectionne
"FEDERIC" (SIC).
[
"Federic," instead of "Frederic," is, by this time, the common
signature to French Letters.]
This Letter--how could Maupertuis prevent some accident in such a
case?--got into the Newspapers; glorious for Friedrich, glorious
for Maupertuis; and raised matters to a still higher pitch.
Maupertuis is on the road, and we shall see him before long.
AND EVERY ONE SHALL GET TO HEAVEN IN HIS OWN WAY.
Here is another little fact which had immense renown at home and
abroad, in those summer months and long afterwards.
June 22d, 1740, the GEISTLICHE