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Bērnība pie Rīgas kartes
One day he was amusing himself in the King's room by looking over some geographical plans, one of a town in Hungary taken by the Turks from the Emperor, and the other of Riga, capital of Livonia, a province conquered
by the Swedes a century earlier. At the foot of the map of the Hungarian town was this quotation from the Book of Job, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."
The young Prince read these words, then took a pencil and wrote beneath the map of Riga, "The Lord gave thee to me, and the devil shall not take thee from me."
Thus, in the most insignificant acts of his childhood, his resolute disposition revealed traits characteristic of greatness, showing what he was one day to be.
Voltaire, History of Charles XII, King of Sweden
(1908. gada tulkojums no archive.org) |