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Mizora: A Prophecy / A MSS. Found Among the Private Papers of the Princess Vera Zarovitch

Mizora: A Prophecy / A MSS. Found Among the Private Papers of the Princess Vera Zarovitch

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Chapter 1 No.1

Word Count: 2440    |    Released on: 01/12/2017

ve minds of the age, that induces me to come before the public in the character of an author. True, I have only a simple narration of facts to deal with, and

deal life that is possible for our remote posterity. Again and again has religious enthusiasm pictured a life to be eliminated from the grossness and imperfections of our material existence. The Spirit-the Mind-that mental gift, by or through which we think, reason, and suffer, is by one tragic and awful struggle to free itself from temporal blemishes and difficulties, and become spiritual and perfect. Yet, who, sweeping the limitless fields of space with a telescope, glancing at myriads of worlds that a lifetime could not count, or gazing through a microscope at a tiny world in a drop of water, has dreamed that patient Science and practice could evolve for the living human race, the ideal life of exalted knowledge: the life that I found in Mizora; that Science had made real and practicable. The duty that I owe to truth co

oidable prominence which is given one's own identity in relating personal e

journey no other of my sex has ever attempted, I am compe

ons for my birth and condition been fulfilled, I should have lived, loved, married and died a Russia

nother without wish or will of their own. Of this class I am an illustration. Had I started out with a resolve to discover the North Pole, I should nev

domestic affairs of life, it has been unnecessarily active; yet no one who gives this narrativ

intimate friendship. Their house, being in a fashionable quarter of the city and patriotically hospitable, was the frequent resort of many of their

imprudently gave expression to them in connection with some of the political movements of the Russian Government-and secured its su

at the battle of Grochow when she was an infant in her mother's arms. My love for my friend, and sympat

attached to each other, and when I gave to my infant the name of my father and witnessed his

battles that had been fought there, met to offer prayers for their souls. At her request, I accompanied my friend to witness the ceremonies. To me, a silent and sympathizing spectator, they were impressive and solemn in the extreme. Not less than

fall bleeding, dying from the bayonet thrust of a Russian soldier. I clasped the lifeless body in my arms, and in my grief and excitement, poured forth upbr

availing in procuring a commutation of my sentence to some less severe punishment. Through bribery, h

ept whatever means chance offered for my escape, and a whaling vessel bound for the Northern Seas was the only thing I cou

my little cabin, my fate was more endurable than the horrors of Siberia could have been, but it was inexpressibly lone

should it ever become necessary. We took our march for the nearest Esquimaux settlement, where we were kindly received and tendered the hospitality of their miserable huts. The captain, who had been ill for some time, grew rapidly worse, and in a few days expired. As soon as the approach of death became apparent, he called the crew about h

deserted, the crew having decamped with

ake the best of it. I believed it could be only a matter of time when some European or America

ry appetite, the raw flesh and fat that form their principal food. Acclimated by birth to the coldest region of the temperate zone,

ty in the right direction when a sudden snow-storm had obscured the landmarks by which they guide their course. I cheerfully assumed a share of their hardships, for with these poor children of the North life is a continual struggle with cold and starvation. The long, rough journeys which we frequently took over ice and ridges of snow in quest of animal food, I found monotonously

ere often confined to our ice huts for days while the blinding fury of the wind driven snow without made the earth look like chaos. Sometimes I crept to the narrow entrance and looked toward the South with a feeling of homesickness too intense to describe. Away,

epared to move farther north, to a locality where they claimed whales could be found in abundance. I cheerfully assisted in th

burdened with immense packs; and our journey begun. We halted only to rest and sleep. A few hours work furnished us a new ho

ndant, also fish of an excellent quality. Here, for the first time in many months, I felt the kindly greeting of a mild breeze as it hailed me

agree to be my companion. On the contrary, they intimated that I should never return. I believed that they were trying to frighten me into remaining with them, and declared my

hite man's foot h

ken. A boat was constructed, and bidding adieu to m

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