offered, and by seeking instructiob abroad. He laboured with his own hands, as a common artisan in Holland and England, that he might return and teach his subjects how ships, commerce,and civilization could be acquired. There is a degree of heroism here superior to anything that we know of in the Macedonian king. But Philip's consolidation of the long disunited Macedonian empire; his raising a people, which he found the scorn of their civilized southern neighbours to be their dread; his organization of a brave and well-disciplined army, instead of a disorderly militia; his creation of a maritime force, and his systematic skill in acquiring and improving sea-ports and arsenals; his patient tenacity of purpose under reverses; his personal bravery; and even his proneness to coarse amusements and pleasures; all mark him out as the prototype of the imperial founder of the Russian power. In justice, however, to the ancient hero, it ought to be added, that we find in the history of Philip no examples of that savage cruelty, which deforms so grievously the character of Peter the Great.
In considering the effects of the overthrow which the Swedish arms sustained at Pultowa, and in speculating on the probable consequences that would have followed if the invaders had been successful, we must not only bear in mind the wretched
