If we look for striking personalities and events, the reigns of Frederick the Great and Of William I. Were Of supreme importance to Europe, and, as was not the case with Louis XIV. And Napoleon, their acquisitions were of a permanent character. All in all, it has seemed to me that I could engage in no more thankful occupation than in writing the history of Germany the more so as German treatments of the subject presuppose more knowledge than is usually to be found in the American reader, and as no other American writer has ever attempted the task. The work of Lewis, founded on an antiquated German text-book, does not fulfil the most modest demands.
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