WIFE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT. 28? for the sorrow which it is natural you should feel at the death of your relations ; but these are events for which there is no remedy. I am, with esteem, etc., Frederick." This was a little better; but even this must have wounded and chilled the sensibilities of a woman singu- larly devoted to her family. She bore her lot, however, with great patience ; and, as she advanced in years, and her character matured, she became a much more presenta- ble and interesting person. She conquered, at length, the King's cordial esteem, and the letters which he wrote her in their old age are often in a very affectionate spirit. There could hardly be a more ill-assorted pair than they were ; but both of them, notwithstanding their faults and defects, had a strong sense of duty. This kept them together. The longer they lived, the less irksome their union became, and they ended in cherishing for one another a genuine and great regard. Frederick died in 1786, aged seventy-four. In his will, after making an unusually liberal allowance for his wife's maintenance, he gave as a reason that she " had never caused him the least discontent, and that her incor- ruptible virtue was worthy of love and consideration." She died in 1797, aged sixty-four years. During the eleven years of her widowhood, she had to endure the anxieties and terrors of the revolutionary period, which involved so many of the royal houses of Europe. Those events disturbed her little. She passed much of her time in works of benevolence, and wrote many religious tracts for circulation among the poor. They were quite in the style of our " Tracts," and serve to prove the infinite absurdity of uniting her life with that of the most pronounced unbeliever in Europe. " Reflections for Every Day of the Week," was the title of one of her very brief and mild compositions, and she wrote one Tract expressly to quiet the alarms caused by the French Revolution.
