y to make acquaintance with
the foreign countries by which he intended to accomplish the elevation
of his own. That was the time of those grotesque studies in
shipbuilding, tooth-drawing, and useful arts in which he acquired a
sort of technical mastery; and it was then that he learned to think so
highly of the Dutch as a practical people, worthy of imitation. This
preference was not exclusive, and he was eager to borrow what he could
from others--military organisation from Austria, manners from France,
clothes from England, methods of administration from Germany.
Together with the foreign customs he undertook to introduce experts
who were to teach them, until the disciples became equal to their
masters. The Scotsman Gordon and the Genevese Lefort were at the head
of his army and navy. Germans, such as Munnich and Ostermann,
followed; and then there came a vast army of engineers, miners, metal
founders, artificers of almost all kinds, for the roads and bridges,
the ships and palaces, the schools and hospitals that he called into
existence. These things were the sine qua non of civilisation. It
would be long before his own people understood the use of them. They
could only be obtained by importation. To stimulate the demand for
them at home it would be necessary to rely on the progress of
intelligence. That could not be done in a nation consisting mainly of
serfs. The educational part of the enterprise was the one which had
least success, and which he understood least. For such imponderables
he had no scales, and he cared more for the kind of knowledge that was
practically useful than for the interior improvement of the mind,
which constitutes what we call a gentleman. No such exotic could
flourish at his court. He required that those whom he honoured with
his confidence should get as drunk as himself; that they should be
servile and cringing, without moral courage or self-respect, happy to
be insulted, kicked, and spat upon. They might be men of resource,
brave soldiers, clever administrators, but they seldom developed those
elements of character which prevent a man from being corrupt. For
those qualities he had no comprehension. Civilisation, as he
understood it, was material, not moral. He could not imagine
management of men by the nobler motives. He raised the condition of
the country with great rapidity; he did not raise it above his own
level.

While he was on his travels exploring Europe an insur