They are mighty Nations, he is one small Nation.

His thoughts, we perceive, have always, in the background of them, a hue of settled black.

Easy to say, "Resist till we die;" but to go about, year after year, practically doing it, under cloudy omens, no end of it visible ahead, is not easy.

Many men, Kings and other, have had to take that stern posture;--few on sterner terms than those of Friedrich at present; and none that I know of with a more truly stoical and manful figure of demeanor.

He is long used to it! Wet to the bone, you do not regard new showers; the one thing is, reach the bridge before IT be swum away.
The usual hopes, about Turks, about Peace, and the like, have not been wanting to Friedrich this Winter; mentionable as a trait of Friedrich's character, not otherwise worth mention.