Tea at Trianon: The Portable Magic of Books

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, April 3, 2019

The Portable Magic of Books

From The Paris Apartment:

Why is it that the more efficient we get technologically, the less time we actually have? It rushes by so fast and life goes at the speed of light. What can we do to make time? I believe there is a way to slow it all down, something I neglected for awhile, what with the glamour and allure of the world on the touch screen. It’s the simple and timeless act of cracking a book.

The distractions of TV and hand held devices seem to affect a lot of us in the same way. Maybe it’s our curiosity for something new, that next image, article, (or potential date)! that keeps us glued to the phone. Maybe our attention spans are shorter or we’ve just stopped carving out alone time to curl up in a chair to read. (Read more.)