And yet it seems to us that there often appear in his
poems, especially in the light improvisations which he made to please
his friends, a wealth of poetical detail and a charming tone of true
feeling, which at least his model Voltaire might have envied.
Frederick's history of his times is, like Caesar's _Commentaries_, one
of the most important documents of historical literature. True, like
the Roman general, like all practical statesmen, he stated facts as
they are reflected in the soul of a participant. He does not give due
value to everything or full justice to everybody, but he knows
infinitely more than is revealed to one at a distance, and he wrote of
some of the motives underlying the great events, not without
prejudice, yet with magnanimity toward his opponents. Writing at times
without the enormous reference material which a professional historian
must collect about him, he was occasionally deceived by his memory and
his judgment, though both were very reliable. He was, moreover,
composing an apology for his house, his politics, his campaigns; and,
like Caesar, he sometimes ignores facts or interprets them as he wishes
them to go down to posterity; but his love of truth and the frankness
with which he treats his house and his own actions are no less
admirable than his sovereign calm and the ease with which he soars
above events, in spite of the little rhetorical embellishments which
were due to the taste of his time.
His many-sidedness is as astonishing as his productiveness.
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