290 FREDERICK AND WARMoreover the powers of Europe had adopted the system of regu-
lar, standing armies which had been perfected by Louis XIV in the
1680s. This phenomenon had been made possible by centralised
government, and the ability to levy taxes (Kann, 1982, 30-1), and
Frederick was convinced that the effects were almost wholly bene-
ficial. The regular armies gave occupation to the unemployed, with-
out troubling the useful workmen or the tillers of the field. They
promoted the circulation of money, and their very cost served to
curtail the length of wars.
What was the general character of the leadership which
Frederick gave to the state and the institution of the army? The
expression 'Enlightened Absolutism' was first employed in the corres-
pondence of Diderot, first put into print by Raynal in 1770, and
introduced to historical terminology by W. Roscher in 1847. It was
intended to describe the efforts of those monarchs who, ruling
despotically but not tyrannically, sought to ameliorate the condition
of their subjects by rational reforms. Frederick was familiar with the
guiding principle of 'Enlightenment' from his sympathetic reading
(in French translation) of Christian Wolffs Verniinftigen Gedanken
von gesellschaftlichen Leben der Menschen (1721). Wolff broke with
the biblical formulae of the old German political scientists. He
adopted the 'natural' and the 'rational' as his guides instead, and
declared that the purpose of the state was 'the promotion of general
welfare and security'. Voltaire was acquainted with the nature of
Frederick's reading, and he wrote to him in 1736 of his joy when he
saw that the world holds a prince who thinks like a human
being - a philosopher prince who will be good for mankind ... I
assure you that the only truly happy kings are those who have
begun, like you, with a process of self-education, learning to
know mankind, loving truth, and detesting persecution and
superstition... Under your rule Berlin will become the Athens
of Germany, and perhaps of the whole of Europe. (Undated,
Oeuvres, XXI, 7, 23)
Frederick, as reigning king, in some ways lived up to the expecta-
tions of the philosophes. Soon after his accession he decreed the
abolition of torture, and reappointed Wolff to his university post. He
delighted in the gradual retreat of superstition to the peripheries of
Europe; he tolerated, or rather remained indifferent to, the criticisms
of his person, and he adhered to an unassuming style of kingship that
was as far divorced from the baroque pomp of Louis XIV as it was to be
from the trappings of the bloated Caesarism of the Napoleonic age
(the idea of Frederick wearing a crown is quite ludicrous). It would
be difficult, however, to maintain that Frederick's notion of the ruler