share in the
government than that of lending his name to the public acts. He lived
for a few years in great seclusion, almost forgotten, and died in
1696. Peter was physically, as well as intellectually, a remarkable
man. He was tall and finely formed, with noble features lighted up
with an extremely brilliant eye. His constitution was robust, enabling
him to undergo great hardship, and he was, by nature, a man of great
activity and energy. His education, however, was exceedingly
defective. The regent Sophia had not only exerted all her influence to
keep him in ignorance, but also to allure him into the wildest
excesses of youthful indulgence. Even his recent marriage had not
interfered with the publicity of his amours, and all distinguished
foreigners in Moscow were welcomed by him to scenes of feasting and
carousing.

Notwithstanding these deplorable defects of character, for which much
allowance is to be made from the neglect of his education and his
peculiar temptations, still it was manifest to close observers even
then, that the seeds of true greatness were implanted in his nature.
When five years of age, he was riding with his mother in a coach, and
was asleep in her arms. As they were passing over a bridge where there
was a heavy fall of water from spring rains, the roar of the cataract
awoke him. The noise, with the sudden aspect of the rushing torrent,
created such terror that he was thrown into a fever, and, for years,
he could not see any standing water, much less a running stream,
without being thrown almost into convulsions. To overcome this
weakness, he resolutely persisted in plunging into the waves until his
aversion was changed into a great fondness for that element.

Ashamed of his ignorance, he vigorously commenced studying German,
and, notwithstanding all the seductions of the court, succeeded in
acquiring such a mastery of the language as to be able both to speak
and write it correctly. Peter's father, Alexis, had been anxious to
open the fields of commerce to his subjects. He had, at great expense,
engaged the services of ship builders and navigators from Holland. A
frigate and a yacht had been constructed, with which the Volga had
been navigated to its mouth at Astrachan. It was his intention to open
a trade with Persia through the Caspian Sea. But, in a revolt at
Astrachan, the vessels were seized and destroyed, and the captain
killed. Thus terminated this enterprise. The master builder, howe