f barbarous greatness, I should have been
idolised by my people--as much, at least, as you ever were by the French.
My despotism was more absolute, their servitude was more humble. But
then I could not have reformed their evil customs; have taught them arts,
civility, navigation, and war; have exalted them from brutes in human
shapes into men. In this was seen the extraordinary force of my genius
beyond any comparison with all other kings, that I thought it no
degradation or diminution of my greatness to descend from my throne, and
go and work in the dockyards of a foreign republic; to serve as a private
sailor in my own fleets, and as a common soldier in my own army, till I
had raised myself by my merit in all the several steps and degrees of
promotion up to the highest command, and had thus induced my nobility to
submit to a regular subordination in the sea and land service by a lesson
hard to their pride, and which they would not have learnt from any other
master or by any other method of instruction.

_Louis_.--I am forced to acknowledge that it was a great act. When I
thought it a mean one, my judgment was perverted by the prejudices
arising from my own education and the ridicule thrown upon it by some of
my courtiers, whose minds were too narrow to be able to comprehend the
greatness of yours in that situation.

_Peter_.--It was an act of more heroism than any ever done by Alexander
or Caesar. Nor would I consent to exchange my glory with theirs. They
both did great things; but they were at the head of great nations, far
superior in valour and military skill to those with whom they contended.
I was the king of an ignorant, undisciplined, barbarous people. My
enemies were at first so superior to my subjects that ten thousand of
them could beat a hundred thousand Russians. They had formidable navies;
I had not a ship. The King of Sweden was a prince of the most intrepid
courage, assisted by generals of consummate knowledge in war, and served
by soldiers so disciplined that they were become the admiration and
terror of Europe. Yet I vanquished these soldiers; I drove that prince
to take refuge in Turkey; I won battles at sea as well as land; I new-
created my people; I gave them arts, science, policy; I enabled them to
keep all the powers of the North in awe and dependence, to give kings to
Poland, to check and intimidate the Ottoman emperors, to mix with great
weight in the affairs of all Europe. What othe