Tea at Trianon: The Art of the Possible

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 15, 2016

The Art of the Possible

From Seton Magazine:

Throughout the course of a lifetime a person makes many decisions, some in which the best choice is self-evident, others in which it is premature to decide because more information or more reflection is needed, and yet others in which the two options show no marked, vital difference—neither of them perfect or the best.

So often the choices are not the optimal ones and leave something to be desired. While everyone naturally seeks to make the best choice that achieves the goal or attains the ideal perfectly, often a person must accept the better of two alternatives and resign himself to “the art of the possible.” This decision does not mean that someone has settled for mediocrity or lowered standards to settle for the lowest common denominator. Rather it is the best decision a person can make in the actual circumstances that surround the situation based on the knowledge and wisdom available. (Read more.)