1862.11 被称为腓特烈大帝的弗里德里希二世的历史

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History of Friedrich the Second, Called Frederick the Great
NOVEMBER 1862 ISSUE
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REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.

By THOMAS CARLYLE. In Four Volumes. Vol. III. New York : Harper & Brothers. 1862.

ALTHOUGH History flows in a channel never quite literally dry, and for certain purposes a continuous chronicle of its current is desirable, it is only in rare reaches, wherein it meets formidable obstacles to progress, that it becomes grand and impressive ; and even in such cases the interest deepens immeasurably, when some master-spirit arises to direct its energies. The period of Frederick the Great was not one of these remarkable passages. It was marked, however, with the signs that precede such. Europe lay weltering and tossing in seemingly aimless agitation, yet in real birth-throes ; and the issue was momentous and memorable, namely : The People. From the hour in which they emerged from the darkness of the French Revolution, they have so absorbed attention that men have had little opportunity to look into the causes which forced them to the front, and made wiser leadership thenceforth indispensable to peaceful rule. The field, too, was repulsive with the appearance of nearly a waste place, save only that Frederick the Second won the surname of “ Great” by his action thereon. And it may he justly averred that only to reveal his life, and perhaps that of one other, was it worthy of resuscitation. To do this was an appalling labor, for the skeleton thereof was scattered through the crypts of many kingdoms; yet, by the commanding genius of Mr. Carlyle, bone hath not only come to his bone, but they have been clothed with flesh and blood, so that the captains of the age, and, moreover, the masses, as they appeared in their blind tusslings, are restored to sight with the freshness and fulness of Nature. Although this historical review is strictly illustrative, it is altogether incomparable for vividness and originality of presentation. The treatment of official personages is startlingly new. All ceremony toward them gives place to a fearful familiarity, as of one who not only sees through and through them, but oversees. Grave Emptiness and strutting Vanity, found in high places, are mocked with immortal mimicry. Indeed, those of the “ wind-bag ” species generally, wherever they appear in important affairs, are so admirably exposed, that we see how they inevitably lead States to disaster and leave them ruins, while their pompous and feeble methods of doing it are so put as to call forth the contemptuous smiles, yea, the derisive laughter, of all coming generations. In fine, the alternate light and shade, which so change the aspect and make the mood of human nature, were never so touched in before; and therefore it is the saddest and the merriest story ever told.
In hold and splendid contrast with this picture of national life flow the life and fortunes of Frederick. If the qualities of his progenitors prophesied tins right royal course, his portrait, by Pesne, shows him to have been conceived in some happy moment when Nature was in her most generous mood. What finish of form and feature ! and what apparent power to win ! Yet in what serene depths it rests, to be aroused only by some superb challenger! No strength of thought or stress of situation seems to have had power to line the curves of beauty. Observe, too, the fullblown mouth, which never saw' cause to set itself in order to form or fortify a purpose. When it is remembered that in opening manhood this prince was long imprisoned under sentence of death for attempting to escape from paternal tyranny, and that his friend actually died on the gallows merely for generous complicity in this offence against the state of a king, and that neither of the terrible facts left permanent trace on his countenance or cloud on his spirit, it should create no surprise that nothing but the march of time was ever visible there. Though trained in such a school, and in the twenty-eighth year of his age when he reached the throne, he yet gave a whole and a full heart to his subjects, and sought to guide them solely for their good. From this purpose he never swerved; and though his somewhat too trustful methods were rapidly changed by stern experience, his people felt more and more the consummate wisdom of his guidance, and they became unconquerable by that truth and that faith. Almost on the first day of his reign, he invited Voltaire, the greatest of literary heroes, the most adroit and successful assaulter of king-craft and priest-craft that ever lived, to his capital and to his palace; and in a most friendly spirit consulted him on the advancement of art and letters, exhausted him by the touchstone of superior capacity, and even fathomed him by a glance so keen and so covert that it always took, but never gave, and then complimented him home in so masterly a manner that he was lured into the fond belief that he had found a disciple. A mind so capacious and so reticent is always an enigma to near observers. Hence it is that the transcendently great may be more truly known to after-ages than to any contemporary. By the patient research and profound insight of Mr. Carlyle, Frederick the Great is thus rising into clear and perennial light. What deserts of dust he wrought in, and what a jungle of false growths he had to clear away, Dryasdust and Smelfungus mournfully hint and indignantly moralize,—under such significant names does this new Rhadamanthus reveal the real sins of mankind, and deliver them over to the judgment of their peers. Frederick, indeed, is among them, but not of them. The way in which he is made to come forth from the mountains of smoke and cinders remaining of his times is absolutely marvellous. As some mighty and mysterious necromancer quickens the morbid imagination to supernatural sight, and for a brief moment reveals through rolling mist and portentous cloud the perfect likeness of the one longed for by the rapt gazer, so Frederick is restored in this biography for the perpetual consolation and admiration of all coming heroes. In comprehension and judgment of the actions and hearts of men, and in vividness of writing, not that which shook the soul of Belshazzar in the midst of his revellers was more powerful, or more sure of approval and fulfilment. It is not only one of the greatest of histories and of biographies, but nothing in literature, from any other pen, bears any likeness to it. It is truly a solitary work, —the effort of a vast and lonely nature to find a meet companion among the departed.




被称为腓特烈大帝的弗里德里希二世的历史
1862年11月号
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THOMAS CARLYLE著。分四卷。Vol. III. New York : Harper & Brothers. 1862.

尽管历史在一个从未完全干涸的渠道中流淌，而且为了某些目的，连续记录其流向是可取的，但只有在极少数情况下，当它遇到阻碍进展的巨大障碍时，它才会变得宏大而令人印象深刻；而且即使在这种情况下，当一些大师级的精神出现来指导其能量时，其兴趣也会不可估量地加深。腓特烈大帝的时期并不是这些非凡的时期之一。然而，它的特点是具有这种情况之前的迹象。欧洲在看似漫无目的的骚动中摇摆不定，但却处于真正的生机勃勃之中；而问题是重大而令人难忘的，即：人民。从他们从法国大革命的黑暗中走出来的那一刻起，他们就吸引了人们的注意力，以至于人们很少有机会去研究迫使他们走上前台的原因，并使明智的领导成为和平统治所不可或缺的。这片战场也是令人厌恶的，看起来几乎是一片废墟，只有腓特烈二世通过他在那里的行动赢得了 "伟大 "的名声。他有理由说，只有为了揭示他的生命，也许还有另一个人的生命，才值得恢复。要做到这一点是一项骇人听闻的工作，因为他的骨架散落在许多国家的地下室里；然而，由于卡莱尔先生的天才指挥，骨头不仅回到了他的骨头上，而且他们还披上了血肉之躯，因此，这个时代的队长，而且，大众，在他们盲目的争斗中出现，以自然的新鲜和充实恢复了视觉。虽然这篇历史评论是严格意义上的说明性文章，但它的生动性和独创性是无可比拟的。对官方人物的处理是惊人的新。对他们的所有仪式都让位于一种可怕的熟悉感，就像一个人不仅看透了他们，而且监督了他们。在高处发现的坟墓般的空虚和趾高气扬的虚荣，被不朽的模仿所嘲弄。事实上，那些 "风流人物"，无论他们在什么地方出现在重要的事务中，都是如此令人钦佩地暴露出来，我们看到他们是如何不可避免地把各国引向灾难，使它们成为废墟，而他们华而不实的做法，则是为了唤起所有后人的轻蔑的微笑，是的，嘲笑的笑声。总之，明暗交替，改变了人性的面貌和情绪，这在以前是从来没有过的；因此，这是有史以来最悲哀和最美好的故事。
与这幅国家生活画卷形成鲜明对比的是腓特烈的生活和命运。如果说他的祖先的品质预示着正确的皇家路线，那么他的肖像，由Pesne画的，表明他是在大自然最慷慨的时候，在某个快乐的时刻孕育的。多么完美的形式和特征！多么明显的赢利能力！但在多么宁静的深处，它又是多么令人感动。然而，它又是在多么宁静的深处，只有在一些高超的挑战者面前才会被唤醒! 思想的力量或形势的压力似乎都没有力量来衬托出美丽的曲线。另外，请注意那张饱满的嘴，它从来没有为了形成或加强一个目的而设置自己的原因。当人们想起这位王子在成年之初曾因试图逃避父亲的暴政而被长期监禁，而他的朋友仅仅因为慷慨地与国王同流合污而死在绞刑架上，而这些可怕的事实都没有在他的脸上留下永久的痕迹，也没有在他的精神上留下阴影，那么，除了时间的流逝，那里再也看不到任何东西了，这也就不奇怪了。虽然在这样的学校里接受了训练，而且在他登上王位的时候已经是28岁了，但他仍然对他的臣民付出了全部的心血，并试图完全为了他们的利益而引导他们。他从未偏离过这一目的；尽管他有些过于信任的方法因严酷的经验而迅速改变，但他的人民越来越感到他的指导是完美的智慧，他们变得无法被这一真理和信仰所征服。几乎在他统治的第一天，他就邀请了伏尔泰，最伟大的文学英雄，有史以来最狡猾和最成功的国王和牧师的攻击者，来到他的首都和宫殿。他以最友好的精神向他请教艺术和文学的发展，以卓越的能力为试金石使他精疲力竭，甚至以一种敏锐而隐蔽的目光来探究他，这种目光总是索取，却从不给予，然后以如此高超的方式恭维他回家，使他被引诱到一种美好的信念中，认为他找到了一个弟子。一个如此博大精深又如此沉默寡言的心灵，对于近在咫尺的观察者来说，总是一个谜。因此，后世对超凡脱俗的伟大人物的了解可能比任何当代人更真实。通过卡莱尔先生的耐心研究和深刻洞察力，腓特烈大帝就这样被升华为清晰而永恒的光芒。他在多么荒凉的沙漠中耕耘，他必须清除多么虚假的丛林，Dryasdust和Smelfungus哀伤地暗示并愤慨地宣扬道德，--在这样重要的名字下，这个新的Rhadamanthus揭示了人类的真正罪孽，并将他们交给他们的同行来审判。弗雷德里克确实是他们中的一员，但不属于他们。他从他那个时代剩下的烟雾和煤渣山中走出来的方式绝对是令人惊叹的。就像一些强大而神秘的巫师将病态的想象力转化为超自然的景象，并在短暂的瞬间透过翻滚的迷雾和预示性的云层揭示出狂热的凝视者所渴望的那个人的完美形象，所以弗雷德里克在这本传记中得到了恢复，使所有未来的英雄得到了永久的安慰和赞美。在对人的行为和内心的理解和判断方面，以及在写作的生动性方面，没有什么比在伯沙撒的狂欢中震撼他的灵魂更有力量，或更有把握得到批准和实现。它不仅是最伟大的历史和传记之一，而且在文学作品中，没有任何其他笔墨能与它相提并论。它确实是一部孤独的作品，是一个庞大而孤独的自然界为在已故的人中找到一个相聚的伙伴而作出的努力。