Memoirs of Christina, Queen of Sweden, Volume 1

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Hurst and Blackett, 1863 - Sweden
 

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Page 18 - God knows, my son, By what by-paths and indirect crook'd ways I met this crown ; and I myself know well How troublesome it sat upon my head. To thee it shall descend with better quiet, Better opinion, better confirmation ; For all the soil of the achievement goes With me into the earth.
Page 277 - ... the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature.
Page 177 - ... active and public life, with the attainment of that exact and various learning which is generally the portion only of the recluse student. He was distinguished as an advocate and a magistrate, and he composed the most valuable works on the law of his own country; he was almost equally celebrated as an historian, a scholar, a poet, and a divine; a disinterested statesman, a philosophical lawyer, a patriot who united moderation with firmness, and a theologian who was taught candour by his learning....
Page 177 - The sagacity of his numerous and fierce adversaries could not discover a blot on his character ; and in the midst of all the hard trials and galling provocations of a turbulent political life, he never once deserted his friends when they were unfortunate, nor insulted his enemies when they were weak.
Page 195 - Maria. You must take every precaution, for never were people here so much against us as now ; but they shall never get their way, so long as you remain firm. They talk a great deal of the Elector of Brandenburg, but neither he, nor any one in the world, however rich he be, shall ever alienate my heart from you. My love is so strong that it can only be overcome by death, and if, which God forbid, you should die before me, my heart shall remain dead for every other, and my mind and affection shall...
Page 195 - My love is so strong that it can only be overcome by death, and if, which God forbid, you should die before me, my heart shall remain dead for every other, and my mind and affection shall follow you to eternity, there to dwell with you. " Perhaps some will advise you to demand my hand openly ; but I beseech you, by all that is holy, to have patience for some time, until you have acquired some reputation in the war, and until I have the crown on my head. I entreat you not to consider this time long,...
Page 188 - ... main m'en a retirée. Vous savez, quoi qu'en puisse dire la médisance, que je suis innocente de toutes les impostures dont elle a voulu noircir ma vie.
Page 184 - Greek writers into favour; the queen soon made herself mistress of the most important authors of antiquity, and even the fathers of the church were not suffered to remain unknown to her. Nicolaus Heinsius boasts of having been born in the same age with this queen as the first felicity of his life; the second, was that he had been known to her; but the third, the most decided happiness, and that which he desires all future ages to know, was, that he had been not altogether displeasing to her. Christina...
Page 284 - ... adopted from a wish to flatter the uncontrolled passions of sovereigns. Not that I am disposed to call in question the originality of Hobbes; for it appears, from the testimony of all his friends, that he had much less pleasure in reading than in thinking. " If I had read," he was accustomed to say, " as much as some others, I should have been as ignorant as they are.
Page 194 - Christina wrote thus to him on January 5, 1644 — " BELOVED COUSIN, — I see by your letter that you do not venture to trust your thoughts to the pen. We may, however, correspond with all freedom, if you send me the key to a cipher, and compose your letters according to it, and change the seals, as I do with mine. Then the letters may be sent to your sister, the Princess Maria. You must take every precaution, for never were people here so much against us as now ; but they shall never get their...

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