Tea at Trianon: Hope in a Small Town

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, September 1, 2019

Hope in a Small Town

From Human Events:

Now, I am a 55-year-old man, but my wife says my best qualities are my ability to re-examine my priorities and start fresh if I need to. I began to read: I read people like Mollie Hemingway, Sean Davis—even Ben Shapiro. I began to see that they understood what I didn’t: America was still great, and could get even greater under Trump and these new conservative ideas.

One thing that happens when you approach death is that you think about your legacy. You think about children and what kind of nation you want to leave behind for them. After eight years of hearing how America and Americans were deplorable, colonialists, and inherently unjust, I had become downtrodden. I had lost my pride.

Now, I began to remember that America was always great. And like all great men, this nation had its flaws, sure, but it maintained a tried and true method to correct and better itself. These young warriors forced me to reflect, remember, and not be ashamed of being American. (Read more.)

julygirl said...: Hordes of people continue to risk their lives to enter the USA so we must be doing something right. As President Trump said...if you don't like it here, go back to your own country! We become better people when we focus on what is right and good about ourselves.; September 2, 2019 at 2:06:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: Yes, exactly!; September 2, 2019 at 4:02:00 PM EDT