redeeming quality, both in itself, and in its effects. If, again, all that is meant be only that learning has some tendency to become pedantic on a throne, this may be admitted; for it is a natural consequence of the possession being so unusual: but even this result, where it has happened, has, in by far the majority of cases, formed but a very trifling drawback upon the good with which it was connected. James certainly has not gained much credit to his name by his authorship; though it deserves to be remarked, that it is posterity that has been least indulgent to his pretensions. In his own day his learning procured him great admiration, not only from the mere courtly flatterers of the time, but from many of its most distinguished scholars for evidence of which, we need go no farther than to the dedication of their work addressed to him by the authors of our admirable translation of the Bible, and still commonly printed at its head. The character of the man, however, the species and quality of the learning which he had acquired, and above all the spirit of the age, had more share in making James the pedant that he was, than any disadvantage under which his station placed him. - Another name, which is sometimes quoted as that of a king to whom learning was a misfortune rather than a blessing, is that of the celebrated ALPHONSO X, king of Castile and Leon, commonly called the Wise. This prince, who lived in the thirteenth century, was certainly unlucky in his schemes of political ambition; and the vain attempt he made to obtain possession of the imperial crown involved him in a series of calamities, and eventually led to his dethronement. But it does not appear that his literary and scientific acquirements, so extraordinary for his age, had anything to do in occasioning the errors to which he owed his ruin, or that, with less learning, he would have been either more prudent, or more fortunate. As it was, Alphonso, notwithstanding the troubles in which his reign was passed, conferred such services, both upon his own country and upon the world at large, as few royal names have to boast of. Spain owes to him, not only her earliest national history and translation of the scriptures, but the restoration of her principal university, the introduction of the vernacular tongue in public proceedings and documents, and the promulgation of an admirable code of laws; and science is indebted to this monarch for the celebrated astronomical tables known by his name, the earliest which were compiled subsequently to those given in the Almagest of Ptolemy, who flourished in the second century. According to some accounts, Alphonso spent the large sum of 400,000 crowns on the preparation of these tables, in which he was assisted by others of the most learned astronomers of the time. They went through several editions, even after the invention of printing, and continued, indeed, to be generally used by astronomers till the commencement of the sixteenth century. CHAPTER II. Peter the Great, (Czar of Russia). BUT the pursuit of knowledge is not necessarily confined to the study of books; and, therefore, although we pass over many other names that might be here introduced, we must not omit that of a sovereign who distinguished himself by his ardour in this pursuit in a variety of ways, and was, in all respects, one of the most extraordinary men that ever lived,—the Czar PETER I, of Russia. Peter was born in 1672, and at ten years of age found himself in nominal possession of the throne; although, for some time, all the actual power of the state remained in the hands of his sister, the princess Sophia, who was about five years older than himself. But his boyhood was scarcely expired, when he gave proof of the energy of his character by ridding himself of this domination; and in 1689 the princess was already removed from the government, and immured in a monastery. From this moment the young czar, now absolute in reality as well as in name, directed his whole efforts to the most extraordinary enterprize in which a sovereign ever engaged; being nothing less than to change entirely the most settled habits and prejudices of his subjects, and not so much to reform them, as to transform them, almost by main force, from barbarians into a civilized people. For the Russians at this time-not more than a century and a half ago—were, in truth, little better than a nation of savages. Nay, Peter himself was born and reared a savage; and to his last days the passions and propensities of his original condition remained strong in his nature. It speaks the more for his wonderful genius that, throughout his whole history, he forces us to feel that we are reading the adventures of the chief of a barbarous country, struggling to civilize himself as well as his people. And undoubtedly we do not follow his progress with the less interest on that account. Nothing, in fact, in his proceedings or his character so much engages our curiosity, as to watch the astonishment with which his own ignorance was struck on the first view of those arts of civilized life which he was so anxious to introduce among his less ambitious, but hardly more ignorant, subjects. It is exactly the case of a strong-minded and enterprising leader of some tribe of wild Americans or South Sea islanders, setting out to see with his own eyes the wonders of those distant lands of which his white visiters have told him, and, after all, viewing the scenes which civilization presents to him with an intoxication of surprise, which shows how imperfectly even his excited fancy had anticipated their actual nature. But, however he was at first struck with what he beheld, Peter did not continue long lost in mere amazement. The story which is told of the occasion which awakened him to the ambition of creating a Russian navy is very illustrative of his character. While looking about one day among some old stores and other neglected effects, he chanced to cast his eye upon the hulk of a small English sloop, with its sailing tackle, lying among the rest of the lumber, and fast going to decay. This vessel had been imported many years before by his father, Alexis Michelovitch, also a prince of distinguished talents, and who had nourished many schemes for the regeneration of his country; but it had long been forgotten by every body, as well as the object which it was designed to Peter than it fixed his attention; he made inquiries of some of the foreigners by whom he was surrounded, as to the use of the mast and sails, even the general purposes of which he did not know; and the explanations which he received made him look on the old hulk with new interest. It immediately became, in his imagination, the germ of a magnificent national marine; and he could take no rest till he had made arrangements for having it repaired and set afloat. With some difficulty the Dutch pilot was found out whom Alexis had procured at the same time with the sloop to teach his subjects the method of managing it; the man, like the vessel, of which he was to have the charge, had long been forgotten by all the world. Once more, however, brought out of his obscurity, he soon refitted the sloop; and the Czar was gratified beyond measure by at length beholding it, with its mast replaced and its sails in order, moving on its proper element. Delighted as he was he went himself on board, and was not long before he became a sufficiently expert seaman to take the place of his Dutch pilot. For several years after this his chief attention was given to maritime affairs; although his first ships were all of foreign construction, and it was a considerable time before any issued from his own docks. From so small a beginning as has been described, Russia has since become, after England, one of the greatest naval powers in the world.* *The most detailed account we have met with of the story told in the text is one preserved among the MSS of Sir Hans Sloane, in the British Museum (No. 3,168). It appears to have been written shortly after the death of Peter the Great, and by a person who was either a native of Russia or had resided in that country. According to this authority the incident took place in the flax-yard at Ishmaeloff, an old seat of the royal family near Moscow. The writer gives us also an account of a great naval show, at which he was himself present, in honour of this celebrat |