his happens to them, "Ah! it was
not my fault. It was the fault of the builders;" to which the proper
reply would be, "It _was_ your fault. You should not have undertaken to
build a house unless, in addition to being able to form the general plan
and arrangements wisely, you had also had the sagacity to discern the
characters of the men whom you were to employ to execute the work." This
latter quality is as important to success in all undertakings as the
former. Indeed, it is far more important, for good _men_ may correct or
avoid the evils of a bad plan, but a good plan can never afford security
against the evil action of bad men.

The sovereigns and great military commanders that have acquired the
highest celebrity in history have always been remarkable for their tact
and sagacity in discovering and bringing forward the right kind of talent
for the successful accomplishment of their various designs.

When Peter first found himself nominally in possession of the supreme
power, after the fall of the Princess Sophia, he was very young, and the
administration of the government was really in the hands of different
nobles and officers of state, who managed affairs in his name. From time
to time there were great dissensions among these men. They formed
themselves into cliques and coteries, each of which was jealous of the
influence of the others. As Peter gradually grew older, and felt
stronger and stronger in his position, he took a greater part in the
direction and control of the public policy, and the persons whom he first
made choice of to aid him in his plans were two very able men, whom he
afterward raised to positions of great responsibility and honor. These
men became, indeed, in the end, highly distinguished as statesmen, and
were very prominent and very efficient instruments in the development and
realization of Peter's plans. The name of the first of these statesmen
was Le Fort; that of the second was Menzikoff. The story which is told
by the old historians of both of these men is quite romantic.

Le Fort was the son of a merchant of Geneva. He had a strong desire from
his childhood to be a soldier, but his father, considering the hardships
and dangers to which a military life would expose him, preferred to make
him a merchant, and so he provided him with a place in the counting-house
of one of the great merchants of Amsterdam. The city of Amsterdam was in
those days one of the greatest and wealthies