HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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century, so manifest a difference is apparent between them, that it might be amatter of doubt, if there were any other than men, whether they were notbeings of a distinct species from each other. Posterity views, almost with indig-nation, the wild attempts of Charles to raise himself into the arbiter of northernEurope, though his people were groaning under every accumulation of miserywhich the horrors naturally attendant on war could bring upon them. In Russia,the interposition of a single river produced an intire change of sentiments and ofpursuits. The rude inhospitable desart was converted, fast as human exertionscould effect the change, into a state of cultivation and plenteous produce, whilethe austerity of the noble became gradually, though slowly, softened by an inter-course with countries whose very names, perhaps, had been unknown to thepreceding generation. The rude floats, which might be considered as aboriginal,for they varied but little from those that had been used in the earliest ages ofnavigation, became suddenly formed into vessels vying almost in elegance, inuse, and in consequence, with those of neighbouring countries wdiose artists hadheld, for a number of ages, their skill in the science as of very considerablevalue. That this wonderful revolution should have been effected by the attentionand resolution of a prince in direct opposition to thfc stubborn prejudice of his sub-jects is certainly extraordinary in the extreme, and may not improbably appear tofuture ages as fabulous. As an intermediate character between the preceding ex-tremes of princely attention and monarchical neglect, stands the mild and placidexample ot Frederic the Fourth ; constantly attentive to the interests and washesof his people, he neither strove to plunge them into wars by any inconsiderateattempt to increase his own dominion, nor did he suffer their consequence to sinkbelow that regular rank which they had so long held as a brave and commercialpeople. He justly considered the use of arms and the sw’ords of his subjects asintrusted to him, not for the gratification of his own vanity and ambition, but asto be directed by him solely to their welfare and their defence. He regardedcommerce in its true light; as conferring, while restrained within its properlimits, a myriad of benefits, but bearing in the other hand a no less extensivecatalogue of evils, w hen imprudently cherished as the only means of renderinga country great and respectable. lie wisely treated it as an impassioned friend,who, while he could conduct himself with sobriety, contributed materially to thecivilization, the comfort, and the pleasures of his people ; but as one, who, w'heninebriated, threw off all those distinctions which render society indurable, andbv rendering the manners of the people corrupt as well as dissolute, threatened notV ol, III. F only