Tea at Trianon: The Jefferson Bible

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, July 9, 2008

The Jefferson Bible

Jefferson reduced the Gospels to a mere code of morality by editing out the miracles of Christ. (Via Joshua Snyder) Share

2 comments:

Another moment in Now said...: I have begun to think that he was part of the Dark Illuminati and took a large part in the downfall and slander of Marie Antoinette.; July 10, 2008 at 11:05:00 AM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: I don't know that Jefferson was in to all that the way some others were, but he did slander Marie Antoinette, making some quite ugly statements about her. It was uncalled for, since she received him and his daughter very graciously. Besides, the king did a lot to help the American cause; it was ungrateful of Jefferson to speak ill of Louis' wife. But Jefferson was close friends with Lafayette, with whom Marie-Antoinette did not get on too well.; July 10, 2008 at 11:36:00 AM EDT