a small
closet, in which he had been accustomed to perform his devotions and
remained there alone a full half-hour; with what various emotions his
mind must have been affected while in this situation, could be known
only to himself, but might easily be imagined. It could hardly fail to
recall to his recollection the happy period when he "communed with his
own heart" in this sacred little chamber, and "remembered his Creator
in the days of his youth,"--days which he might naturally enough be
led to compare and contrast with those of the last nineteen years of
his life, filled up as they had been with many and varied incidents,
painful, hazardous, disastrous and glorious.

Every one was anxious to bring to his recollection any little
circumstance in which he had been concerned,--among others, a
beautiful boat was brought to him as a present, in the building of
which he himself had done "yeoman service." He was delighted to see
that this ancient piece of the workmanship of his own hands had been
preserved with such care. He caused it to be put on board a ship bound
for Petersburg, but she was unfortunately captured by the Swedes; and
the boat is still kept in the arsenal of Stockholm.

With his old acquaintance, Kist, the blacksmith, he visited the
smithy, which was so dirty that the gentleman of his suite who
attended him was retreating, but Peter stopped him to blow the bellows
and heat a piece of iron, which, when so done, he beat out with the
great hammer. Kist was still but a journeyman blacksmith, and the Tzar
out of compassion for his old acquaintance made him a handsome
present.

[The Editor's conclusion, or brief summary, is sketched as follows.]

The character of Peter the Great, as has been shown in the course of
this memoir, was a strange compound of contradictions. Owing to the
circumstances in which he was placed, and the determination to execute
the plan he had conceived of remodelling the customs and institutions
of his country, he had to maintain a constant struggle between his
good and evil genius. Nothing was too great, nothing too little for
his comprehensive mind. The noblest undertakings were mixed with the
most farcical amusements; the most laudable institutions, for the
benefit and improvement of his subjects, were followed by shaving
their beards and docking their skirts;--kind-hearted, benevolent, and
humane, he set no value on human life. Owing to these, and many other
incongruities, his cha