Read Ebook: Daily Thoughts: selected from the writings of Charles Kingsley by his wife by Kingsley Charles Kingsley Frances Eliza Grenfell Editor

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OF VOLUME I

PART ONE

PAGE

My certificate of baptism. The revolution of 1848. Landgrave F?rstenberg. The feather ball. Castle Matzen.

Elvira. Playing "puff." My mother's singing. Clairvoyant Aunt Lotti. Roulette and trente-et-quarante. Castles in the air. My first journey. Season in Wiesbaden. Return. Grillparzer and Ebner-Eschenbach at Elvira's. Radetzky's death. A schoolgirl romance.

Anastasius Gr?n. Friedrich Halm. Grillparzer. Wagner. Lenau's sister. Military autographs. King Ludwig of Bavaria. Schiller's daughter. Liebig. Sch?cking. M?dler. K?rner. Anderssen. Meyerbeer. R?ckert. Hebbel. Gregorovius. Lamartine. Victor Hugo. Manzoni. Dickens.

The War of 1859. A prank. Elvira's marriage.

PART TWO

Engaged. The engagement ended. Baden. Marietta. Season in Rome. Carnival at Venice.

A disappointed dream of love.

Back to Baden. Singing lessons. Great hopes. A test before Madame Viardot.

Return. Elvira's death. F?rstenberg's death. The war. Homburg once more. Back to Baden. Baron Koller.

Singing lessons resumed. Ma?tre Duprez. The school in the Rue Laval. In the house of the Princess of Mingrelia. In the imperial box at the opera. Summer at Duprez's place in the country. Return to Paris. Princess Salom?'s engagement. Prince Achille Murat. The wedding. With the young couple. Off to Baden-Baden.

Resumption of trente-et-quarante. Baroness Seutter. Acquaintance with King William I of Prussia. A letter from the king.

Return to Paris. Renunciation of an artistic career. A dream of Australian gold. Betrothal of Heraclius of Georgia.

Resumption of music study in Milan. Outbreak of the Franco-German War. My double existence in the world of books. Return of the victorious troops to Berlin.

Duet practice and betrothal. Art journey and--end. Letters from Castle Wittgenstein.

PART THREE

Arrival in Paris. Alfred Nobel's personality. Unendurable agony of separation. Two dispatches. A plan of action. Arrival at Vienna. Blissful meeting. At last and forever united.

PART FOUR

On the Black Sea. Jason mood. Arrival in Asia. The hotel in Poti. Kutais. Count Rosmorduc. Reception at Prince Zeretelli's. National dances. Journey to Gordi. Prince Niko with escort comes to meet us. Arrival at Gordi. Ceremonious reception.

Lessons. Rumors of war and outbreak of war. Red Cross fever. The plague on the horizon. Bad times. Conclusion of peace. Mathilde. Beginning of literary career.

Another summer in Gordi. Business projects. Removal to Tiflis. Princess Tamara of Georgia. Our manner of life. Double position. Continued authorship. Illness.

The Dedopali's death. Death of my mother. Prospect of coming home. Translation of "The Tiger's Skin." Sojourn in a Mingrelian village. A bit of Georgian history. Queen Tamara.

PART FIVE

Departure from the Caucasus. First destination, G?rz. Return to Harmannsdorf. Family life and neighborly visits. Literary correspondence. Writers' convention in Berlin.

How the plan for the book originated. Study of sources. The model of my hero. Satisfaction in writing the word "End." Unanimously rejected by the editors. The publisher's scruples. Publication. How the book was received. Favorable and hostile criticisms. Personal contact with the peace movement resulting from the novel. The Peace Congress of 1889 in Paris. Founding of Interparliamentary Union.

In port. Trip to Vienna. Literary circles. Balduin Groller. Theodor Herzl. Letter from Count Hoyos. Letter from Friedrich Bodenstedt.

The news of the Crown Prince's death. Sojourn in Mentone. Octave Mirbeau. A winter in Venice. Old acquaintances. Princess Tamara and Marietta Saibante. Visit of Felix Moscheles to the widow "Tillings." Moscheles as peace propagandist. Formation of a section in Venice through Marquis Pandolfi. The Grelix. The Princess of Montenegro. Princess Hatzfeld, born Von Buch. A memory of Cosima Wagner.

Return. Skeptical reception of my reports. Resumption of our literary labors. Pandolfi suggests enlisting recruits in the Austrian parliament for the conference at Rome. Correspondence with members: Baron K?beck, Pernerstorfer, Dr. Jaques, Dr. Exner. The group is formed, Baron Pirquet turning the scale.

PART SEVEN

We two. Business troubles. Deaths. Family life at Castle Stockern. Home theater. The twelfth of June. Visit of Prince Andr? Dadiani.

His confession of faith. Further development. Candidacy for the Reichstag. From his address to the electors. On the fear of revolution. Idealists in act. My first meeting with Egidy. Visit at his home. Consistency of preaching and practice. A letter from Egidy.

Letters from Alphonse Daudet, Paul Heyse, the Bishop of Durham, Ruggero Bonghi, and Count Kamarofski.

Journey to Switzerland. Poem by Count Hoyos. Letter from Prince Camillo Starhemberg. Opening of the Congress. First impulse to arbitration treaties, from America. League of European states. Social life of the Congressists. Arturo de Marcoartu. Alfred Nobel complies with my invitation. On the lake of Lucerne. A parable by Ruchonnet. Protest against distorted reports. A lively debate. Arrival of the Interparliamentarians. The Conference. A prophetic toast.

Arrival at Zurich. Nobel begins to take an interest in the peace movement, and joins us. Trips on the lake. A glimpse into his views of life. His first project for an act in furtherance of the cause of peace.

PART ONE 1843-1861

I CHILDHOOD My certificate of baptism ? The revolution of 1848 ? Landgrave F?rstenberg ? The Feather Ball ? Castle Matzen

What gives me some justification for publishing my experiences is the fact that I have met many interesting and distinguished contemporaries, and that my participation in a movement which has gradually grown to be of historic consequence has given me many glimpses into the political affairs of our time; and that hence, all in all, I have something to say that is really worth publishing.

Of course, if I meant to tell only of this period of my life, I should have to confine myself to the history of the past fifteen or twenty years, and wholly forego conjuring up pictures from my youth; and I should have to deny myself the writing down of those personal recollections which my whole changeful life has stamped upon my memory. But I will not deny myself this. Now that I have been induced by the above-mentioned reason to write my memoirs, it shall be a genuine record of a life. Once again shall the stages of the long journey come in due order before my inward eye, and from them what seems to me suitable for reproduction shall be photographed on these pages.

So, without further exordium, let us begin:

The beginning of all human life is birth. Where and when and in what environment I came into the world is most authentically shown by my certificate of baptism. Here is the copy of that document:

CERTIFICATE OF BAPTISM

ad W.E. 200

Bertha Sophia Felicita Countess Kinsky of Chinic and Tettau, legitimate daughter of the Right Honorable Franz Joseph Count Kinsky of Chinic and Tettau, retired Royal and Imperial Lieutenant Field-Marshal and Actual Chamberlain, born in Vienna--a legitimate son of his Excellency the Right Honorable Ferdinand Count Kinsky of Chinic and Tettau, Royal and Imperial Chamberlain and Grand Steward and seigneur of the domain of Chlumec, by his wife the Honorable Lady Christine, born Princess Liechtenstein--and his wife, the Honorable Lady Sophia Wilhelmine Countess Kinsky of Chinic and Tettau, born Von K?rner, born in Prague .

The sponsors at the christening were Barbara Kraticek, lady's maid, and the Honorable Herr Arthur Count Kinsky of Chinic and Tettau. Midwife Frau Sabina Jer?bek of S.C. 124.

Hereto witness the hand of the undersigned, and the parish seal.

Prague, Parish of St. Maria-Schnee, November 27, 1866

Dr. Minister at St. Maria-Schnee

At this christening service--though I vowed and abjured so many things in it--I was not present. For I do not understand by the word "I" the living corporeal form in which it is contained, but that self-consciousness which is absent both in infancy and also at frequent intervals throughout life: in sleep, in fainting, in narcotic stupefaction, under the influence of drugs, and in a great many moments when one merely breathes and does not think, look, hear; when one merely continues his existence vegetatively until the I resumes its functions.

Prague, then, was the city where they set up my cradle, over which, as over all cradles, so much was unprophesied. But my mother, who at my birth was already a widow, soon moved to Br?nn, and what I remember of childhood is events that took place in the Moravian capital.

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