Tea at Trianon: Thou Shall Not Foist

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, June 8, 2022

Thou Shall Not Foist

From Dr. DeMarco at Catholic Exchange:

In a similar way of dodging the issue of abortion, President Biden has stated repeatedly that he would never “impose” his Catholic views on the public. In so saying, he appears to be an open-minded champion of the separation of church and state. In stating his position, however, he makes two egregious mistakes. The first is that opposition to abortion is not peculiarly Catholic. Abortion is fundamentally a humanitarian issue. “Thou shall not kill” was directed not only to Catholics (there were not any around at the time of the Old Testament writers) but to all human beings. If Biden were consistent, he would have said: “I am a human being, but I will never impose my humanitarian views on the public.” And where would that leave him?

The second error is in equating service with “imposing.” To “impose,” in Biden’s use of the term, means to force upon someone that which is not welcomed (“The decision was theirs and not imposed by others”). One does not impose, however, when he assists in securing what people need. In this sense, he is not imposing, but serving or ministering. Not to know the difference between “imposing” and “serving” should disqualify anyone from public service. It is most unfortunate that this distinction is lost on the president of a country. (Read more.)