of the bars he forged on this occasion is still to be seen at Istia. He was also accustomed, according to Voltaire, to take his place sometimes among the men employed in cutting canals, a species of public labour on which he expended large sums, in order to encourage and animate them in the more difficult parts of their work. But his favourite art was that of shipbuilding, his lessons in which, learned in Holland and England, he took care not to forget on his return home. The writer of the manuscript narrative in the British Museum, to which we have referred in a note on a former page, gives us some curious information in relation to this matter. The Czar, he tells us, as soon as he got back from England, went down to Veronez, whither he carried two English builders, named Dean and Noy, whom he had brought out with him. Of these, however, 'the first,' the narrative continues, 'soon after desired a discharge, which was granted, without giving any proof of his art. The Czar himself and Joseph Noy received orders from the Lord High Admiral, Theodore Alexowitz Golovin, to build each of them a man-of-war. The Czar, having taken upon himself the title of a master shipbuilder, was pleased to subject himself to the condition of that character; and, in compliance with that order, gave the first proof of his skill in the art which he had learned abroad; and continued afterwards to bear that title, and had at all times, notwithstanding his great engagements in many other affairs, one ship upon the stocks; and at his death left one ship half built, one of the largest in Europe, 180 feet long upon the deck, 51 broad, and 21 deep, and mounts 110 guns, and is by relation one of the finest bodies that has ever been seen-as were, indeed, all the rest he built. He himself drew the draught of this great ship at Riga, where was no master shipbuilder but himself; and when he returned to Petersburg, he gave the surveyor an account that he had drawn his draught of the great ship which he had orders to build from the surveyor's office, and, according to the regulations of the navy, presented his draught to be examined.' The emperor, this writer adds, collected the results of his experience and reading upon the subject of shipbuilding, and formed them into a regular treatise on the art. This work, however, has not been published, although it is probably preserved with the other literary productions of the writer, in the Imperial Library at Petersburg. The only work from the hand of Peter the Great which has been printed, is his Journal from 1698 to the peace of Neustadt in 1721. Of this document, which is almost entirely occu pied with military transactions, Great, in this respect, with a French translation by M. Formey was published at Berlin in 1773, in one volume, quarto. Peter died in 1725, in the fifty-third year of his age. His history presents us with, perhaps, as remarkable a case of the conquest of difficulties in the pursuit of knowledge as it would be possible to quote. In his noble resolution to educate not only himself, but his country, he had to contend with obstacles at every step, which nothing could have overcome but that determination to succeed which overcomes all things. Few monarchs have better deserved the epithet of Great, if he is to be appreciated either by the great powers of mind he displayed, or the great effects he accomplished. And of these last it is to be remarked that none have passed away; all have been permanent and productive. Compare Peter the many other characters who during their time have filled the earth with the noise of their exploits, and how high must he be placed above them! Alexander's mighty empire fell to pieces as soon as his own hand had resigned its sceptre; so did that of Charlemagne; so did that of Buonaparte. These all, after moving everything, established almost nothing. But whatever the Russian planted still grows and flourishes, and bears fruit more plentifully every year. The reason is, that while other builders up of empires have trusted for the support of their institutions alone or chiefly to the sword, he based his on the moral strength of knowledge and civilisation. [The most recent and elaborate work on Peter the Great is that of Eugene Schuyler, which appeared in Scribner's Magazine during 1880.] ADVANTAGES OF WEALTH IN THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE: JOHN NAPIER OF MERCHISTON. NOTWITHSTANDING the honour- | to, even before the pursuit which the of knowledge; and those of able reputation princes we have named, and sovereigns are sufficiently arduothers whom we have not room ous to make it impossible, when to notice, have acquired by they are fully performed, that their devotion to intellectual this pursuit can be anything pursuits, it is to be observed more than the avocation of that science and literature have their leisure. To this extent been much more indebted to only, therefore, is it desirable the example and patronage, that they should devote themthan to the actual performances, selves to it. But if so, it cannot of the royal personages who are be expected that this class of to be counted among their persons should contribute many, friends. No great discovery or even any, names of first-rate or immortal composition claims distinction to the history of a king as its author. When literature or science. It were the genius that might have not fitting, indeed, that the accomplished such has been same individual should have found on a throne, it has been supremacy at once in two worlds otherwise occupied than with so entirely different and unthe quiet but divine pleasures connected as that of political of learning and philosophy. dignity and that of genius. All, And doubtless this is only as therefore, we repeat, which it should be. Men have not philosophy and the arts usually crowns put upon their heads have to ask of kings is their that they may write books or protection and countenance, spend their lives in constructing and an example which may at philosophical theories. Every least evidence an attachment station has its peculiar duties, to intellectual pursuits, even hich must first be attended while duties of another sort Whether letters, generally speaking, flourish best with or without the patronage of courts, we do not here stop to inquire. It is at all events certain, that in some cases the literary progress of a country has been greatly indebted to a love of literature in its sovereign. Thus it was that Alfred imported civilisation into England, James 1. into Scotland, and Peter the Great into Russia. demand the chief attention. he can most benefit his country by his political services, to endeavour to do so. But this is at least an ambition by which many are apt to be seduced, who look rather to its glittering prizes than to their own qualifications; and it is also undeniably one in which something else than merit often contributes to success. There can be no danger, therefore, of too many persons deserting politics for philosophy. There will always be a sufficient number of our men of wealth and rank to serve the State, and contend for her honours and her offices, although as many leave the crowd as the love of study and speculation can possibly withdraw. But other individuals in possession of wealth or rank are differently situated from kings. They have often no public duties to perform, or none from which they may not disengage themselves, in so far at least as they would interfere with the closest application to intellectual pursuits. In most countries, indeed, they are not called upon to take a part in the management of affairs, in ordinary circumstances, by any need that the State has of their services, so much as by their own ambition for political distinction; and so numerous are almost always the competitors here, that an individual who chooses to withdraw from the throng will rarely have cause to reproach himself with having deserted a post which there are not a hundred others ready, and as well qualified, to occupy. However, we would neither condemn nor depreciate any path of honourable enterprise; doubtless it is the duty of every man who believes that But political ambition, in truth, is not that seduction by which persons of this description are most apt to be enthralled. The besetting temptations attendant upon the possession of wealth and leisure (which, rightly employed, constitute such inestimable advantages) are the facilities which they afford to the indulgence of mere indolence and love of pleasure. A rich man, who can live without exertion of any kind, is apt to lose the power even of that degree of exertion which is necessary for the acquisition of knowledge. Besides, his money provides him with other enjoyments; and he often never even acquires a taste for those of an intellectual kind. A defective or misdirected education too frequently departments of philosophy and learning, are those of persons who, unembarrassed by the toils and cares of obtaining a subsistence, have been free to lead only prepares him the better for yielding to the unfortunate influences of his condition; and the habits and prejudices of society come also to assist their force and confirm their domina life of contemplation, having ion. When an individual thus purchased to themselves that circumstanced, therefore, be- inestimable privilege by a retakes himself in good earnest linquishment of the other to the pursuit of knowledge, he pleasures or objects of ambition also is entitled to be regarded, ordinarily followed by those in as one who has exhibited much their situation, and seeking no energy of character, and con- other advantage from their quered many difficulties, as well riches or their competence than as he who has had to struggle that of being at liberty to devote with poverty, or an uncongenial their time and their powers of occupation, in his attempts to mind to labours of their own obtain an acquaintance with choosing. From the list of the books. The impediments which illustrious of ancient times, we have lain in the way of the need mention no others, and former are different from those we can mention no greater, than that have beset the path of the Plato and Archimedes, both latter; but they may not have of whom were of distinguished been less difficult to overcome. birth (the former being a deThe fact, at all events, is that the scendant of the family of Solon, temptations of wealth have often the other a near relation of exerted as fatal an effect in re- King Hiero), and, there is every pressing all ardour for intellec- reason to suppose, opulent. tual pursuits, as ever did the But we pass from times so obstructions of indigence. remote that, even when the circumstances of the case are well ascertained, the changes that have taken place in everything detract from the value of an example or illustration, in order to notice two or three of the more remarkable instances which belong to a state of society more nearly resembling our own. Yet where the love of knowledge has taken full possession of the heart, the rich man is in a much more favourable situation than the poor man for the prosecution of great enterprises in science or literature. Those demand both leisure and ease of mind-two good things, of the first of which generally but and of the second often are his who has to his daily bread by Hence some test names, in all Dour. The first name we shall mention is that of JOHN NAPIER. He was not a nobleman, but only what would in England be called lord of a manor. Such |