Frederick the Great. A Military Life

295 FREDERICK AND WAR

general rule that 'war is hell'. Its reputation for moderation comes
from the fact that atrocities in other times were generally worse, and
that the civilian peoples were more often the incidental victims of
careless brutality than the deliberately selected targets of military
operations.
The plundering of Saxony had a justification of sorts in
Frederick's desire to limit the extent to which the material resources
of his own state were committed to the war. In the event, Saxon
money and fodder made a very significant contribution to the Prus-
sian effort. Manpower was another commodity which Frederick was
anxious to conserve, for Prussia was thinly peopled in proportion to
the extent of its territories, and he equated the size of the population
very closely with the inherent strength of the state. Hence he made up
the ranks of the army with foreigners, and he wrote what has become
a celebrated passage in his Political Testament of 1768:

Society and government would perish, if the labour of the

peasants did not render fertile the arid heart of our countryside.

These useful and hard-working men are the apple of our eye. We

must accordingly spare them, and draw recruits from the land

only on occasions of utmost necessity. (Frederick, 1920, 140)

Frederick was also driven to limit the military involvement of

the mass of his subjects by his hierarchical instincts, and his love of

categorisation. Few people, in his estimation, were capable of grasp-

ing what was at stake in matters of policy. He reckoned that in a given

state of 10 million people, there would perhaps be about 50,000 who

were not fully engaged in working for their daily bread. Out of these,

just 1,000 would be men of education and intelligence, and this tiny

number would embrace many disparate talents.

Similarly, Frederick regarded the business of fighting as entirely

the concern of the regular army, and he discouraged the intervention

of all other elements. A cook of the Margrave Carl once captured an

enemy, and brought him proudly before the king. Frederick inquired:

'Who are you?'

'A cook.'

'Well then, stay in your kitchen!' (Anon., 1788-9, II, 10)

He could find nothing praiseworthy in the conduct of a woman who

had served bravely through several campaigns of the Seven Years War

in the guise of a soldier:

It's contrary to nature. I don't want to have any women soldiers

in my army. There might be some advantage from them in

wartime, but the disorder would be all the greater in time of