Tea at Trianon: Rare Wisdom

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, March 27, 2019

Rare Wisdom

From The American Thinker:

Politicians are used to seeing cowardice and being cowards. So used to it are they that they cannot even imagine there being another way. Our president has proven to be quite different. He is fearless. He is bold. He acts. He accomplishes. (What he would be accomplishing if those in his party had the courage to support him is hard to conceive.) If one takes a moment to look at his brilliance, it is a truly rare and beautiful thing.

First off, the attacks were made to wear him down and wear him out. To make him sue (and compromise) for peace. He did not. Two, they thought they could make him overreact, go beyond his jurisdiction. He did not do that, either. Three, when attacks on him directly failed, they went after his family. The media in the end were saying his children were going to be indicted. He did not wince. (Neither did they.) (Read more.)