The Soldier of Fortune; An Historical and Political Romance (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1816 Excerpt: ...therefore, was kept a stranger to him from his birth. He was never surrounded by a train of slaves, who, watching his motions, conceive themselves honored in obeying his caprices. His simple and unsophisticated relatives gave him to understand that he was a man; and the lot of man, the habit of encountering evils, was the first lesson he received. Running, wrestling, and military amusements, were first given to develope his powers. He would be covered with dust on that same field of Mars, where exercised your Scipios, your Marii, your Pompeys. This part of education, Castilians, I must notice, since it begins to become unfashionable among you; since it seems to be giving way to the manners of the eastern nations, among whom luxury and laziness degrade man from his very birth, and where the mind is enervated before it has power to know its state. "Nobles those who flatter, injure yoB; it is only by telling you the truth, that our love toward you can be shown. But had bis education stopped here, Don Carlos would have been a bare soldier only: some sciences were now to be added, to complete the man; and it appears the language of Plato first of all became to him as familiar as his own: Eloquence then taught him how to address mankind: History next, to judge of them: the laws then, to acquaint him with the foundation of governments. Various codes and constitutions were set before him to compare. A strict discipline soon familiarized his childhood to industry, and, in the field of battle, to accomplish the greatest of all human labors--that of ennobling himself." Scarcely had this elegant and unexpected eulogium been finished by Donna Isabella, when jealousy crawled back to her gloomy coverts, no longer infecting the happiness of the day. Envy too was...