Tea at Trianon: Origins of the Philistines

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, January 2, 2022

Origins of the Philistines

From Science Sensei:

The Old Testament also tells Samson’s story, an Israelite whose parents pledged him to be under the Nazarene vow. As part of the Nazarene vow, he could not cut his hair, from which he derived superhuman strength. He insisted on taking a wife from the Philistines and chose a beautiful seductress, Delilah. She convinced him to tell her the secret of his power. When she learned that the secret was in his hair, she informed the Philistine army and then lulled him to sleep so they could cut his hair.
Like David and Goliath, the story of Samson and Delilah are well-known stories of right and wrong, good and evil. However, the ancestors and origins of the ancient Philistines were still mostly unknown until now. (Read more.)