With his old acquaintance, Kist, the blacksmith, he visited the
smithy, which was so dirty that the gentleman of his suite who
attended him was retreating, but Peter stopped him to blow the bellows
and heat a piece of iron, which, when so done, he beat out with the
great hammer. Kist was still but a journeyman blacksmith, and the Tzar
out of compassion for his old acquaintance made him a handsome
present.

[The Editor's conclusion, or brief summary, is sketched as follows.]

The character of Peter the Great, as has been shown in the course of
this memoir, was a strange compound of contradictions. Owing to the
circumstances in which he was placed, and the determination to execute
the plan he had conceived of remodelling the customs and institutions
of his country, he had to maintain a constant struggle between his
good and evil genius. Nothing was too great, nothing too little for
his comprehensive mind. The noblest undertakings were mixed with the
most farcical amusements; the most laudable institutions, for the
benefit and improvement of his subjects, were followed by shaving
their beards and docking their skirts;--kind-hearted, benevolent, and
humane, he set no value on human life. Owing to these, and many other
incongruities, his character has necessarily been represented in
various points of view and in various colours by his biographers. Of
him, however, it can scarcely be said, that

The evil which men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones.

With the exception of a few foreign writers, who have generally