Tea at Trianon: The Unremembered Dead

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

The Unremembered Dead

Anthony Esolen of Touchstone discusses the ten most famous Americans. In the eyes of many young people, certain great historical figures no longer seem to matter.

People in the old days wrote in funny long boring sentences, so none of them make the list: no Emerson or Thoreau or Hawthorne or Irving. Herman Melville may have written the greatest of all novels, if you can call Moby-Dick a novel and not a prose poem of many hundreds of pages; but Melville does not make the list. Emily Dickinson may be the greatest woman poet ever; too bad for Emily Dickinson. Walt Whitman, for the worse I think, revolutionized modern poetry and has been regarded as the quintessential poet of democracy. Too bad for Walt; he is forgotten. In fact, no men of letters make the list: no Faulkner, Hemingway, O'Neill, Frost, not even the boilerplate-writing Harriet Beecher Stowe. Religion is boring and reminds us of our duties to those who have come before us, so no religious figure makes the list: no Jonathan Edwards, the greatest theological mind America has produced, no Billy Graham, no Fulton Sheen.

Brantigny said...: The problem is simply this, There are many fine people who need to be remebered. Each person will have his own 10. my personal favorites are,
. Christopher Columbus
. Captain John Smith
. John Rolfe
. Virgina Dare
. Powhatan
. Sir William Johnson
. Isaac Jogues
. Ponce de Leon
. George Washington
. Jonas Salk
. Thomas Edison

I offer on historical figures but I also could give 10 favorite comedians, sports figures, (actually I couldnt 'cause I am not a sports fan.) Politians, authors, etc.

de; April 9, 2008 at 10:29:00 AM EDT
Anonymous said...: Notice the over-representation of "black studies" and so-called "women's studies" personages. How else can we explain Marilyn Monroe and Oprah Winfrey making the list of "greatest Americans"?

This list is a perfect illustration of how morally bankrupt our society has become, and a perfect reflection of how well the propaganda machine works on our youth.

Lord help our nation.

~Georgette
(whose daughter's name "Mimi" is stuck in her blogger account...long story!); April 10, 2008 at 1:16:00 AM EDT