But in order to enjoy even these harmless pleasures the prince
was constantly forced into falsehood, deception, and disguise. He was
proud, high-minded, magnanimous, with an uncompromising love of truth.
The fact that deception was utterly repulsive to him, that even where
it was advisable he was unwilling to stoop to it, and that, if he ever
undertook it, he dissimulated unskilfully, threw a constantly
increasing strain upon his relations with his father. The king's
distrust grew, and the son's offended sense of personal dignity found
expression in the form of stubbornness.
So he grew up surrounded by coarse spies who reported every word to
the king. With a mind of the richest endowments, of the most
discerning eagerness for knowledge, but without any suitable male
society, it is no wonder that the young man went astray. In comparison
with other German courts, the Prussian might be regarded as very
virtuous: but frivolity toward women and a lack of reserve in the
discussion of the most dubious relations were pronounced even there.
After a visit to the dissolute court of Dresden, Prince Frederick
began to behave like other princes of his time, and generally found
good comrades among his father's younger officers. We know little
about him at that period, but may conclude that he ran some risk, not
of becoming depraved, but of wasting valuable years in a spendthrift
life among unworthy companions. It certainly was not alone the
increasing dissatisfaction of his father which at that time destroyed
his peace of mind and tossed him about aimlessly, but quite as much
that inner discontent, which leads an unformed youth the more wildly
astray the greater the secret demands are which his mind makes on
life.
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