Tea at Trianon: Lust in Action

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 29, 2024

Lust in Action

From Andrew Klavan at The New Jerusalem:

We’ve stumbled on the discovery that Christianity requires the practice of spiritual excellence meant to develop the capacity for joy in this world of darkness. Like every good thing, achieving this excellence requires effort. As with achieving physical excellence, there are negative efforts, like giving up stuff that’s bad for you, and positive efforts, in which you build the muscles you need.
But there’s something in us that desires the bad stuff like a wanna-be Schwarzenegger wants chocolate cake — and not just cake but fatness. The evil itself.
Now let me add one more complication. We confessed to being drawn to consciousness-marring horror movies and the anger-hell of X. But horror movies and X are not essentially bad. They’re essentially good! A terrific horror movie like Alien or Night of the Living Dead can be a scary, insightful delight. And X is a great platform for fact-checking the lies of authorities and the news media. The problem is: these good things can be corrupted and we are drawn to that corruption.
The same is true of creation itself. (Read more.)