The Portuguese also advance claims to be the first discoverers of Australia, but so far the evidence cannot be said to establish their pretensions.
In the reign of Michael's successor, Alexius (1645-76), the country recovered its strength so rapidly that the tsar was tempted to revive the energetic aggressive policy and put forward claims to Livonia, Lithuania and Little Russia, but he was obliged to moderate his pretensions.
Holding that chemistry had not attained the rank of a science - his lectures dealt with the "effects of heat and mixture" - he had an almost morbid horror of hasty generalization or of anything that had the pretensions of a fully fledged system.
There were several violent contests between rivals anxious to secure so splendid a position as the electorate, and the pretensions of the archbishops occasionally moved the citizens of Mainz to revolt.
After six years the differences between the old and the young philosopher grew too marked for friendship. Comte began to fret under Saint-Simon's pretensions to be his director.