ntricate time of it under the Catin; which was consoled to her only by
a tolerably rapid succession of lovers, the best the ground yielded.
In which department it is well known what a Thrice-Greatest she became:
superior to any Charles II.; equal almost to an August the Strong! Of
her loves now and henceforth, which are heartily uninteresting to me,
I propose to say nothing farther; merely this, That in extent they
probably rivalled the highest male sovereign figures (and are to be
put in the same category with these, and damned as deep, or a little
deeper);--and cost her, in gifts, in magnificent pensions to the EMERITI
(for she did things always in a grandiose manner, quietly and
yet inexorably dismissing the EMERITUS with stores of gold), the
considerable sum of 20 millions sterling, in the course of her long
reign. One, or at most two, were off on pension, when Hanbury Williams
brought Poniatowski for her, as we transiently saw. Poniatowski will be
King of Poland in the course of events....

"Russia is not a publishing country; the Books about Catharine are few,
and of little worth. TOOKE, an English Chaplain; CASTERA, an unknown
French Hanger-on, who copies from Tooke, or Tooke from him: these are
to be read, as the bad-best, and will yield little satisfactory insight;
Castera, in particular, a great deal of dubious backstairs gossip and
street rumor, which are not delightful to a reader of sense. In fine,
there has been published, in these very years, a FRAGMENT of early
AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Catharine herself,--a credible and highly remarkable
little Piece: worth all the others, if it is knowledge of Catharine
you are seeking. [_Memoires de l'Imperatrice Catharine II., ecrits par
elle-meme_ (A. Herzen editing; London, 1859)];--which we already cited,
on occasion of Catharine's marriage.

Anonymous (Castera), _Vie de Catharine II., Imperatrice de Russie_ a
Paris, 1797; or reprinted, most of it, enough of it, A VARSOVIE, 1798) 2
tomes, 8vo. Tooke, _Life of Catharine II._ (4th edition, London, 1800),
3 vols. 8vo; _View of the Russian Empire during &c._ (London, 1799), 3
vols. 8vo.-Hermann, _Geschichte des Russischen Staats_ (Hamburg, 1853
ET ANTEA), v. 241-308 et seq.; is by much the most solid Book, though a
dull and heavy. Stenzel cites, as does Hermann, a _Biographie Peters des
IIIten;_ which no doubt exists, in perhaps 3 volumes; but where, when,
by whom, or of what quality, they do not tell me. A most placid,
solid