nd very informal nuptial rites
were bound to her for a season, each one of whom was exchanged for
another as caprice incited. The spirit of national aggrandizement
which influenced Catharine, was a spirit possessed, to an equal
extent, at that time, by every cabinet in Christendom. It was the
great motive power of the age. Dismembered Poland excites our
sympathy; but Poland was as eager to share in the partition of other
States as she was reluctant to submit to that operation herself. In
personal character Catharine was humane, tolerant, self-denying, and
earnestly devoted to the welfare of her empire. Religious teachers, of
all denominations, freely met at her table. This Christian liberality,
thus encouraged in the palace, spread through the realm, producing the
most beneficial results. On the occasion of a celebrated festival,
Catharine gave a grand dinner party to ecclesiastics of all communions
at the palace. This entertainment she called the "Dinner of
Toleration." The representatives of eight different forms of worship
met around this hospitable board.

The instruction of the masses of the people occupied much of the
attention of this extraordinary woman. She commenced with founding
schools in the large towns; and then proceeded to the establishment of
them in various parts of the country. Many normal schools were
established for the education of teachers. The empress herself
attended the examinations and questioned the scholars. On one of these
occasions, when a learned German professor of history was giving a
lecture to some pupils, gathered from the tribes of Siberia, the
empress proposed an objection to some views he advanced. The courtiers
were shocked at the learned man's presumption in replying to the
objection in the most conclusive manner. The empress, ever eager in
the acquisition of knowledge, admitted her mistake, and thanked the
professor for having rectified it with so much ability.

She purchased, at a high price, the libraries of D'Alembert, and of
Voltaire, immediately after the death of those illustrious men. She
also purchased the valuable cabinet of natural curiosities collected
by Professor Pallas. The most accomplished engineers she could obtain
were sent to explore the mountains of Caucasus, and even to the
frontiers of China. When we consider the trackless deserts to be
explored, the inhospitable climes and barbarous nations to be
encountered, these were enterprises far more perilous tha