whom Russia has yet seen, to
execute in a manner worthy of the sublime nature of its subject. This
was the history of Peter the Great. He now began to set seriously about
preparing himself for approaching this gigantic subject, and passed the
greater part of his time in the archives, collecting the necessary
materials for the work. In his hours of relaxation he produced the third
volume of his smaller poems, and superintended the publication of
another volume of the "Northern Flowers," which appeared in 1832. But
these must be considered as the results rather of his play-moments, than
as the serious occupation of his time. His mornings were generally
passed among the records preserved in the various departments of the
government, from whence, after the labours and researches of the day, he
usually returned on foot to his late dinner. He was an active and
indefatigable walker, prizing highly, and endeavouring to preserve by
constant exercise, the vigorous frame of body with which he was blessed
by nature. Even in summer he was accustomed to return on foot from his
country residence to his labours in the city, and was in the habit of
taking violent corporeal exercise in gymnastics, which he would continue
with the patience and enduring vigour of an athlete. These walks (it
should be remarked that a taste for walking is much more rare among the
Russians than in England, from the severity and extreme changes in the
climate of the North, the heat in summer rendering such exercise much
more laborious than with us, and the cold in winter necessitating the
use of the heavy shuba of fur)--these walks were Pushkin's principal
amusement, if we except bathing, an exercise which the poet would
frequently continue far into autumn--a season when the weather in Russia
is frequently very severe.

In the prosecution of his great historical labour, it was evidently
difficult for the lively imagination of Pushkin to escape the temptation
of being drawn aside from his chief aim, by the attractive and romantic
character of many episodes in Russian history--to wander for a moment
from the somewhat formal and arid high-road of history, into some of the
"shady spaces," peopled with romantic adventure and picturesque
incident. It was under the influence of some such attraction, that he
conceived the idea of working out in a separate production, the detached
epoch rendered so remarkable by the rebellion of Pugatcheff. Finding
that he had already