Tea at Trianon: On Smoking and Drinking

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

Monday, August 11, 2014

On Smoking and Drinking

We are not Baptists around here. To quote:

Despite the fact that there's been a systematic projection of tobacco products as evil by the media, there are in fact health benefits to smoking. A review of 61 studies suggests that smokers have a 60% lower risk of Parkinson's Disease. Research suggests that nicotine is a surprisingly potent drug for a variety of diseases that afflict the brain, including Alzheimer's and Tourette's Syndrome.... Nicotine can help focus attention and improves memory. Nicotine can relieve some symptoms of schizophrenia.... Tobacco is used to make the malaria vaccine.

[...]

When one loses the use of reason by consumption of alcohol, it is mortally sinful, because you can never put aside the use of reason without a grave reason. If it only slightly affects one's judgment, it is only venially sinful; but if it has no effect on one's judgment, then it's not sinful at all, and may even be commendable. In fact, you may even be able to get grace from drinking alcohol if you're doing it for a legitimate reason and you do it with a supernatural motive.... If one does not drink because he thinks it is evil, then that person is in error, and to persist in that error is a sin. (Read more.)