By Neva's Waters: Being an Episode in the Secret History of Alexander the First, Czar of All the Russias
1907
By Neva's Waters: Being an Episode in the Secret History of Alexander the First, Czar of All the Russias
1907
By Neva's Waters, published in 1907 by John R. Carling, is a historical novel set during the Napoleonic Wars, focusing on the life of Viscount Wilfrid Courtenay, an English gentleman. The narrative intertwines romance and political intrigue against the backdrop of Czar Alexander I's Russia. As Wilfrid navigates a complex web of loyalty and desire, he confronts moral dilemmas involving a Russian envoy's proposal that threatens to compromise a noble princess. This work offers a unique glimpse into early 19th-century European politics and the personal conflicts that arise within it.
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“For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.””
— John R. Carling
“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.””
— John R. Carling
“A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.””
— John R. Carling
“I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat. ””
— John R. Carling
“but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself””
— John R. Carling
“Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?””
— John R. Carling
“For books are not absolutely dead things, but ...do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. I know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous Dragon's teeth; and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men....Yet on the other hand unless wariness be used, as good almost kill a Man as kill a good Book; who kills a Man kills a reasonable creature, God's Image; but he who destroys a good Book, kills reason itself, kills the Image of God, as it were in the eye. Many a man lives a burden to the Earth; but a good Book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.””
— John R. Carling
“A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit"”
— John R. Carling
“Let her [Truth] and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter? Her confuting is the best and surest suppressing.””
— John R. Carling
