hy
won't you do good to mankind, then?" Catharine, a kind of She-Louis
Quatorze, was equal to such a thing. To put one's cast Lover into
a throne,--poor soul, console him in that manner;--and reduce the
long-dissentient Country to blessed composure under him: what a thing!
Foolish Poniatowski, an empty, windy creature, redolent of macassar and
the finer sensibilities of the heart: him she did make King of Poland;
but to reduce the long-dissentient Country to composure,--that was
what she could not do. Countries in that predicament are sometimes very
difficult to compose. The Czarina took, for above five years, a great
deal of trouble, without losing patience. The Czarina, after every new
effort, perceived with astonishment that she was farther from success
than ever. With astonishment; and gradually with irritation, thickening
and mounting towards indignation.

There is no reason to believe that the grandiose Woman handled, or
designed to handle, a doomed Poland in the merciless feline-diabolic
way set forth with wearisome loud reiteration in those distracted Books;
playing with the poor Country as cat does with mouse; now lifting her
fell paw, letting the poor mouse go loose in floods of celestial joy and
hope without limit; and always clutching the hapless creature back into
the blackness of death, before eating and ending it. Reason first is,
that the Czarina, as we see her elsewhere, never was in the least a Cat
or a Devil, but a mere Woman; already virtual proprietress of Poland,
and needing little contrivance to keep it virtually hers. Reason second
is, that she had not the gift of prophecy, and could not foreknow
the Polish events of the next ten years, much less shape them out
beforehand, and preside over them, like a Devil or otherwise, in the way
supposed.

My own private conjecture, I confess, has rather grown to be, on much
reading of those RULHIERES and distracted Books, that the Czarina,--who
was a grandiose creature, with considerable magnanimities, natural
and acquired; with many ostentations, some really great qualities and
talents; in effect, a kind of She-Louis Quatorze (if the reader will
reflect on that Royal Gentleman, and put him into petticoats in Russia,
and change his improper females for improper males),--that the Czarina,
very clearly resolute to keep Poland hers, had determined with herself
to do something very handsome in regard to Poland; and to gain glory,
both with the enlightened Phil