"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, substantial young Lady comes to light there; dropped into such an element as might have driven most people mad. But it did not her; it only made her wiser and wiser in her generation. Element black, hideous, dirty, as Lapland Sorcery;--in which the first clear duty is, to hold one's tongue well, and keep one's eyes open. Stars,--not very heavenly, but of fixed nature, and heavenly to Catharine,--a star or two, shine through the abominable murk: Steady, patient; steer silently, in all weathers, towards these! "Young Catharine's immovable equanimity in this distracted environment strikes us very much. Peter is careering, tumbling about, on all manner of absurd broomsticks, driven too surely by the Devil; terrific-absurd big Lapland Witch, surrounded by multitudes smaller, and some of them less ugly. Will be Czar of Russia, however;--and is one's so-called Husband. These are prospects for an observant, immovably steady-going young Woman! The reigning Czarina, old CATIN herself, is silently the Olympian Jove to Catharine, who reveres her very much. Though articulately stupid as ever, in this Book of Catharine's, she comes out with a dumb weight, of silence, of obstinacy, of intricate abrupt rigor, which--who knows but it may savor of dumb unconscious wisdom in the fat old blockhead? The Book says little of her, and in the way of criticism, of praise or of blame, nothing whatever; but one gains the notion of some dark human female object, bigger than one had fancied it before.