Tea at Trianon: The Devil, You Say

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

Saturday, July 1, 2023

The Devil, You Say

From Francis X. Maier at The Catholic Thing:

The late Leszek Kolakowski had a lifelong fascination with the nature of evil. He wrote about the devil in history more than once. In his essay, “A Stenographic Report of the Devil’s Metaphysical Press Conference in Warsaw, on the 20^th of December 1963,” Kolakowski put the following words into the devil’s mouth in speaking to modern Christian theologians:

You have stopped believing in me. I know all about it, of course. I know all about it, and it is a matter of complete indifference to me. . . .[And yet,] since when does faith tremble before the ridicule of pagans and heretics?. . . .You want to be up to date in this world, to give up “fairy tales,” to stride at the front of humanity. . . .[But] what is it that you must renounce in order to win approbation in this world? The devil?. . . .And do you imagine that this is where the concessions will end?

There comes a moment in Nefarious when the prison’s Catholic chaplain makes a brief appearance. The demon initially recoils in fear. . .until the priest starts blathering about how the Church has “evolved beyond” belief in devils, thanks to enlightened psycho-social tools. Later, along unintentionally similar lines, the unbelieving psychiatrist lists all the human advances in knowledge and behavior that today make religion obsolete. The demon in the human prisoner pauses. Grins. And then says, “I think I love you.”

See the film. Preferably in the daylight. Preferably with a friend. (Read more.)