OF HEREDITARY DARKNESS,
AND, BY FORCE OF HIS INVINCIBLE INFLUENCE,
TAUGHT THEM TO CONQUER
EVEN THE CONQUERORS OF GERMANY.
OTHER PRINCES HAVE COMMANDED VICTORIOUS ARMIES;
THIS COMMANDER CREATED THEM.
EXULT, O NATURE! FOR THINE WAS THIS PRODIGY.
BLUSH, O ART! AT A HERO WHO OWED THEE NOTHING;

CHAPTER XXII.

THE REIGNS OF CATHARINE I. ANNE, THE INFANT IVAN
AND ELIZABETH.

From 1725 to 1162.

Energetic Reign of Catharine.--Her Sudden Death.--Brief Reign of Peter
II.--Difficulties of Hereditary Succession.--A Republic
Contemplated.--Anne, Daughter of Ivan.--The Infant Ivan Proclaimed
King--His Terrible Doom.--Elizabeth, Daughter of Peter the Great
Enthroned.--Character of Elizabeth.--Alliance with Maria
Theresa.--Wars with Prussia.--Great Reverses of Frederic of
Prussia.--Desperate Condition of Frederic.--Death of
Elizabeth.--Succession of Peter III.

The new empress, Catharine I., was already exceedingly popular, and
she rose rapidly in public esteem by the wisdom and vigor of her
administration. Early in June her eldest daughter, Anne, was married
with much pomp to the Duke of Holstein. It was a great novelty to the
Russians to see a woman upon the throne; and the neighboring States
seemed inspired with courage to commence encroachments, thinking that
they had but little to apprehend from the feeble arm of a queen.
Poland, Sweden and Denmark were all animated with the hope that the
time had now come in which they could recover those portions of
territory which, during past wars, had been wrested from them by
Russia.

Catharine was fully aware of the dangers thus impending, and adopted
such vigorous measures for augmenting the army and the fleet as
speedily to dispel the illusion. Catharine vigorously prosecuted the
measures her husband had introduced for the promotion of the
civilization and enlightenment of her subjects. She took great care of
the young prince Peter, son of the deceased Alexis, and endeavored in
all ways to educate him so that he might be worthy to succeed her
upon the throne. This young man, the grandson of Peter the Great, was
the only prince in whose veins flowed the blood of the tzars.

The academy of sciences at St. Petersburg, which Peter had founded,
was sedulously fostered by Catharine. The health of the empress was
feeble when she ascended the throne, an