4th-22d June 1786. pretty much, his Theism seems to have stopped. Instinctively, too, he believed, no man more firmly, that Right alone has ultimately any strength in this world: ultimately, yes;-but for him and his poor brief interests, what good was it? Hope for himself in Divine Justice, in Divine Providence, I think he had not practically any; that the unfathomable Demiurgus should concern himself with such a set of paltry ill-given animalcules as oneself and mankind are, this also, as we have often noticed, is in the main incredible to him. A sad Creed, this of the King's; he had to do his duty without fee or reward. Yes, reader;-and what is well worth your attention, you will have difficulty to find, in the annals of any Creed, a King or man who stood more faithfully to his duty; and, till the last hour, alone concerned himself with doing that. To poor Friedrich that was all the Law and all the Prophets: and I much recommend you to surpass him, if you, by good luck, have a better Copy of those inestimable Documents! - Inarticulate notions, fancies, transient aspirations, he might have, in the background of his mind. One day, sitting for a while out of doors, gazing into the Sun, he was heard to murmur, "Perhaps I shall be nearer thee soon:"--and indeed nobody knows what his thoughts were in these final months. There is traceable only a complete superiority to Fear and Hope; in parts, too, are half-glimpses of a great motionless interior lake of Sorrow, sadder than any tears or complainings, which are altogether wanting to it. Friedrich's dismissal of Selle, June 4th, by no means . meant that he had given up hope from medicine; on the contrary, two days after, he had a Letter on the road for Zimmermann at Hanover; whom he always remem 6th June-10th July 1786. bers favourably since that Dialogue we read fifteen years ago. His first Note to Zimmermann is of June 6th, "Would you consent to come for a fortnight, and try upon me?" Zimmermann's overjoyed Answer, "Yes, thrice surely yes," is of June 10th; Friedrich's second is of June 16th, "Come, then!" And Zimmermann came accordingly,—as is still too well known. Arrived, 23d June; stayed till 10th July; had Thirty-three Interviews or Dialogues with him: one visit the last day; two, morning and evening, every preceding day;—and published a Book about them, which made immense noise in the world, and is still read, with little profit or none, by inquirers into Friedrich."1 Thirty-three Dialogues, throwing no new light on Friedrich, none of them equal in interest to the old specimen known to us. In fact, the Book turns rather on Zimmermann himself than on his royal Patient; and might be entitled, as it was by a Satirist, Dialogues of Zimmermann I. and Friedrich II. An unwise Book; abounding in exaggeration; breaking out continually into extraneous sallies and extravagancies, the source of which is too plainly an immense conceit of oneself. Zimmermann is fifteen years older since we last saw him; a man now verging towards sixty; but has not grown wiser in proportion. In Hanover, though miraculously healed of that Leibesschade, and full of high hopes, he has had his new tribulations, new compensations, both of an agitating character. There 'There arose,' he says, in reference to some medical Review-article he wrote, a Weiber-epidemik, a universal shrieking combination of all the Women 11 Ritter von Zimmermann, Über Friedrich den Grossen und meine. Unterredungen mit Ihm kurz vor seinem Tode (1 vol. 8vo: Leipzig, 1788);— followed by Fragmente über Friedrich den Grossen (3 voll. 12mo: Leipzig, 1790); and by &c. &c. 6th June-10th July 1786. against me:'-a frightful accident while it lasted! Then his little Daughter died on his hands; his Son had disorders, nervous imbecilities, did not die, but did worse; went into hopeless idiotcy, and so lived for many years. Zimmermann, being dreadfully miserable, hypochondriac, what not, his friends,' he himself passive, it would seem, 'managed to get a young Wife for him;' thirty years younger than he,-whose performances, however, in this difficult post, are praised. Lastly, not many months ago (Leipzig, 1785), the big final edition of "Solitude" (four volumes) has come out; to the joy and enthusiasm of all philanthropic-philosophic and other circulating-library creatures:-a Copy of which came, by course of nature, not by Zimmermann's help, into the hands of Catharine of Russia. Sublime imperial Letter thereupon, with 'valuable diamond ring;' invitation to come to Petersburg, with charges borne (declined, on account of health); to be imperial Physician (likewise declined);—in fine, continued Correspondence with Catharine (trying enough for a vain head), and Knighthood of the Order of St. Wladimir, so that, at least, Doctor Zimmermann is Ritter Zimmermann henceforth. And now, here has come his new Visit to Friedrich the Great ;—which, with the issues it had, and the tempestuous cloud of tumid speculations and chaotic writings it involved him in, quite upset the poor Ritter Doctor; so that, hypochondrias deepening to the abysmal, his fine intellect sank altogether,—and only Death, which happily followed soon, could disimprison him. At this moment, there is in Zimmermann a worse "Dropsy" of the spiritual kind, than this of the physical, which he has come in relief of! Excerpts of those Zimmermann Dialogues lie copi 10th-21st July 1786. ously round me, ready long ago,-nay, I understand there is, or was, an English Translation of the whole of them, better or worse, for behoof of the curious:-but on serious consideration now, I have to decide, That they are but as a Scene of Clowns in the Elder Dramatists; which, even were it not overdone as it is, cannot be admitted in this place, and is plainly impertinent in the Tragedy that is being acted here. Something of Farce will often enough, in this irreverent world, intrude itself on the most solemn Tragedy; but, in pity even to the Farce, there ought at least to be closed doors kept between them. Enough for us to say, That Ritter Zimmermann,— who is a Physician and a Man of literary Genius, and should not have become a Tragic Zany,—did, with unspeakable emotions, terrors, prayers to Heaven, and paroxysms of his own ridiculous kind, prescribe "Syrup of Dandelion" to the King; talked to him soothingly, musically, successfully; found the King a most pleasant Talker, but a very wilful perverse kind of Patient; whose errors in point of diet especially were enormous to a degree. Truth is, the King's appetite for food did still survive:—and this might have been, you would think, the one hopeful basis of Zimmermann's whole treatment, if there were still any hope: but no; Zimmermann merely, with uncommon emphasis, lyrically recognises such amazing appetite in an old man overwhelmed by diseases,-trumpets it abroad, for ignorant persons to regard as a crime, or perhaps as a type generally of the man's past life, and makes no other attempt upon it;-stands by his "Extract of Dandelion boiled to the consistency of honey;" and on the seventeenth day, July 10th, voiceless from emotion, heart just 10th Aug. 1786. breaking, takes himself away, and ceases. One of our Notes says: 'Zimmermann went by Dessau and Brunswick; at Bruns'wick, if he made speed thither, Zimmermann might perhaps ❝ find Mirabeau, who is still there, and just leaving for Berlin to be in at the death:-but if the Doctor and he missed each < other, it was luckier, as they had their controversies afterwards. • Mirabeau arrived at Berlin, July 21st 12 vastly diligent in picking up news, opinions, judgments of men and events, for his Calonne ;—and amazingly accurate, one finds; such a flash of insight has he, in whatever element, foul or fair. 6 'July 9th, the day before Zimmermann's departure, Herzberg had come out to Potsdam in permanence. Herzberg is privately thenceforth in communication with the Successor; altogether privately, though no doubt Friedrich knew it well enough, and saw it to be right. Of course, all manner of poor 'creatures are diligent about their own bits of interests; and 'saying to themselves, "A New Reign is evidently nigh!" Yes, my friends; and a precious Reign it will prove in comparison : 'sensualities, unctuous religiosities, ostentations, imbecilities; cul'minating in Jena twenty years hence.' 6 Zimmermann haggles to tell us what his report was at Brunswick; says, he "set the Duke" (Erbprinz, who is now Duke these six years past) "sobbing and weeping;" though towards the Widow Duchess there must have been some hope held out, as we shall now see. The Duchess's Letter or Letters to her Brother are lost; but this is his Answer: Friedrich to the Duchess-Dowager of Brunswick. "Sans-Souci, 10th August 1786. "My adorable Sister, The Hanover Doctor has wished to "make himself important with you, my good Sister; but the 12 Mirabeau, Histoire secrète de la Cour de Berlin, Tome iii. of Euvres de Mirabeau: Paris, 1821, Lettre v. p. 37. |