have been fruitless. I have only lost my time and beaten the
air. You do not so much as strive to grow better, and all your
satisfaction seems to consist in laziness and inactivity.

"Having, therefore, considered all these things, and fully reflected
upon them, as I see I have not been able to engage you by any motives
to do as you ought, I have come to the conclusion to lay before you, in
writing, this my last determination, resolving, however, to wait still
a little longer before I come to a final execution of my purpose, in
order to give you one more trial to see whether you will amend or no.
If you do not, I am fully resolved to cut you off from the succession.

"Do not think that because I have no other son I will not really do
this, but only say it to frighten you. You may rely upon it that I
will certainly do what I say; for, as I spare not my own life for the
good of my country and the safety of my people, why should I spare you,
who will not take the pains to make yourself worthy of them? I shall
much prefer to transmit this trust to some worthy stranger than to an
unworthy son.

"(Signed with his majesty's own hand),

"PETER."

The reader will observe, from the phraseology of these concluding
paragraphs, what is made still more evident by the perusal of the whole
letter, that the great ground of Peter's complaint against his son was
not his immorality and wickedness, but his idleness and inefficiency.
If he had shown himself an active and spirited young man, full of
military ardor, and of ambition to rule, he might probably, in his
private life, have been as vicious and depraved as he pleased without
exciting his father's displeasure. But Peter was himself so full of
ambition and energy, and he had formed, moreover, such vast plans for
the aggrandizement of the empire, many of which could only be commenced
during his lifetime, and must depend for their full accomplishment on
the vigor and talent of his successor, that he had set his heart very
strongly on making his son one of the first military men of the age;
and he now lost all patience with him when he saw him stupidly
neglecting the glorious opportunity before him, and throwing away all
his advantages, in order to spend his time in ease and indulgence, thus
thwarting and threatening to render abortive some of his father's
favorite and most far-reaching plans.

The excuse which Alexis made for his conduct was the same which bad
boys often