Tea at Trianon: The Borders of Belief

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

Sunday, August 6, 2017

The Borders of Belief

From First Things:

It was a sign of the times. Worship of strange spirits is on the rise in America, often in ways we do not acknowledge. Tarot readers, ghost hunters, UFO abductees, and shamanic healers may not seem to have much in common with the noble pagans of old. But in a society shaped by comics, sci-fi, and multi-culti kitsch, inchoate polytheism manifests itself as paranormal belief.

According to Pew Research, 65 percent of Americans believe in the paranormal, and their number is increasing. Christianity never denied the reality of what St. Paul calls “principalities and powers,” but its hatred of idols and demons restrained interest in the occult. Now that aversion is declining along with the Christian churches. Paranormal belief and experience is more common among the young than among the old, among the unchurched than among the religious. Before his death in 2016, the Vatican exorcist Fr. Gabriel Amorth warned that witchcraft and devil worship were rapidly spreading. (Read more.)

julygirl said...: It is easier than being a Christian which the principle requirement is humility, a difficult task for our human nature, along with faith, hope and love plus serving others in God's name without expectations of reward. All this requires discipline over years and failure at every turn.; August 6, 2017 at 6:05:00 PM EDT