At present his star is again in the ascendant, and the future looks brighter for him and his family. The change was brought about thus. As the Emperor Nicholas visited the exhibition of art and science at Moscow in the year 1835, he graciously called to mind the literary merchant v/ho had been so sharply attacked by his courtiers in St. Petersburg, and as a token of grace caused it to be intimated to him, that he might publish an account of the emperor's visit to the exhibition, where his majesty had made many notable remarks. Polevoi naturally made the best use of the inspiration. The account was published in The Bee^ which diligent insect conveyed it to the eyes and ears of the public and the court. The emperor sent him a diamond ring, and signified his approbation in other ways also. Polevoi has now again assumed courage ; that brilliant ring seemed the promise of other brilliancies to come, and the more so as another star was paling in the horizon which shortly afterwards set. The poet Pushkin, who was then living, died in 1835.
To this author the emperor had confided the accomplishment of a favourite literary project, a life of Peter the Great, of whom he is a wann admirer, considering him as a heaven-sent genius for Russia's weal. Three years before, Pushkin had been entrusted with the task of collecting materials for this purpose. Time had been given, all the archives were opened, and a considerable yearly sum assigned him. Pushkin collected for three years, but nothing very important was effected, and whenever the emperor inquired about his proceedings, the answer was, " Pushkin is collecting." He seems to have shown himself very lukewarm in the undertaking, for, during his lifetime, it was privately intimated to Polevoi, that if he made application, the task would probably be made over to him. Polevoi had already sketched a kind of prologue to such a work, which he now laid before the emperor, with whose ideas it Avas found to correspond exactly.
Pushkin's death will most likely have decided the matter in Polevoi's favour ; so he hopes at least. In the year of my stay in Moscow, his wife was to go to the neighbourhood of St. Petersburg for the advantage of sea bathing, whither he was to follow, and after undergoing his own course of vapour-baths in the antechamber of the court, to make a tour through Russia, and through other countries, and thus prepared to usher into the world his life of Peter the Great.
After hearing this sketch of Polevoi's o\vn life from my bookseller, I was oinious to make his acquaintance, and after thanking the dealer in literature for his inforniatiou, took my leave, and put myself under the chnrgt? of the first Isvoshtshik I met, and went to pay my ^•espccts to the author.
I should not have ventured to present myself so unceremoniously to a Gottingen sage, unless I had had a handsomely sealed letter of iutroductlon, or my pockets well lined, to pay my examination for a doctor's degree ; but here, where every body is at all times ready to give a hospitable reception to visitors, such a thing may be ventm-ed. I encountered Polevoi in all the heat of composition, and may have robbed the world of many an unborn thought by my entrance, for he immediately laid aside his writing materials, and I passed a very pleasant evening with him.
The round rosy cheeks that seem peculiar to the Russian merchants, have long since vanished from Polevoi's face, and with them the handsome bushy beard that usually adorns them. The cares and nightly watchings that so often accompany devotion to the muses, had made great ravages there. His fresh and blooming youth was revived in his children who were at play in the garden. He speaks French, and is familiar with Gennan, English, Italian, Russian, Polish, and classical literature. Of Schiller and Gothe he spoke with the warmest enthusiasm, as well as of Herder's " Ideas," which he said were In the hands of all cultivated Russians. But speaking of Germany of the present day, he raised his hands above his head, and exclaimed, " My God, where has the genius of Germany hidden itself? '
He spoke with great admiration of the Polish poet Mickievitsh, and thought that, since Byron and Gothe, no such genius had appeared.