of eight or nine years he was taken by his parents to Petersburg where he was presented to the heir to the throne, and allowed to play with his children.  The good will shown him at that time he never lost throughout his entire life.  The year following he was taken to Germany, and while in Weimar was permitted to visit Goethe, which made a lasting impression upon him.  Up to the age of seventeen when he took his examinations for the University at Moscow, he lived both in Russia and abroad.  After the death of his uncle, who made him his heir, he became attached, by the wish of his mother, to the Russian Mission at Frankfort.  Later he returned to enter the Second Division of the Chancellery of His Majesty.  At the time of the coronation of Alexander Second at Moscow, he was appointed to become His Majesty’s aide de camp; an honor he declined, not caring for a military career.  He was afterward made Chief Master of the Royal Hunt, a position he held until the day of his death.  From the age of sixteen he had always written poetry, but not until 1855 did he begin to publish his lyrics and epics in the journals.  His passion for poetry was extended toward all other forms of art.  At thirteen years of age he made his first journey through Italy,—­to Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome and Naples, and his soul grew large with enthusiasm for every manifestation of beauty, so that upon his return to Russia he was really homesick for Italy.  He said himself that it was solely due to his passion for hunting that his poems were written in the major key,—­while those of so many of his countrymen were written in the minor.  Count Tolstoy died on the 28th of September, 1875, at his estates in the government of Tshernigow, where he lies buried.

His most important works were a romance, a dramatic poem, Don Juan,—­and the dramatic trilogy, The Death of Ivan the Terrible, Tsar Fedor Ivanowitsch and Tsar Boris.

APOLLON NIKOLAJEWITSCH MAIKOW was born June 4, 1821, at Moscow.  His father was a painter; his brothers had rendered important service to Russian literature in history and criticism.  As a boy he was instructed in the literature of Russia by the afterward famous Gontscharow.  At the age of fifteen he began to write verse.  His original intention was to become a painter, but the weakness of his eyes and his increased devotion to poetry decided him otherwise.

He studied jurisprudence at the University of St. Petersburg for several years, and his final collection of poems was published in 1842, which was greeted with enthusiasm by the famous critic Belinsky.  In the same year, using the gold he received from the Emperor Nicholas I, he went abroad.  He spent nearly a year in Italy, heard lectures at the College de France and the Sorbonne during his stay in Paris, and spent some time in Prague.  For a time he served in the Ministry of Finance and from 1852 in the Foreign Censorship office at Petersburg; being President of that office at the time of his death which occurred in March, 1897.