337
French essayist Voltaire provoked the wrath of his government by explaining how England was superior to every European state including the Roman Empire.
François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778) spent the years 1726 to 1729 in England. In 1733, he published a series of essays under the name ‘Voltaire’ sharing his observations on English life, chiefly on matters of religion and politics. He had noticed that English people often tried to compare their country with ancient Rome, which he thought rather absurd, especially as in one respect England was much better.
Posted October 21 2021
338
Sir John Eliot told the Commons that what worried him wasn’t the sabre-rattling of foreign leaders, it was incompetence and corruption at home.
Soon after King Charles I came to the throne in 1625, relations with his Parliament became strained over taxation, foreign affairs and the Church. In 1627, Sir John Eliot (1592-1632) was sent to prison for leading the outcry at the King’s bungled campaign against Spain in the Thirty Years’ War. Following his release, Eliot warned the Commons that the threat was as great as ever.
Posted October 20 2021
339
With King John dead and the threat of invasion fading, Philip Faulconbridge reflects that the danger within is always greater than the danger without.
At the end of William Shakespeare’s play The Life and Death of King John, written in about 1594-96, the King has just died an untimely death; with him has died the threat of a French invasion, and John’s heir Henry has returned home to England to assume the crown. Henry’s cousin Philip Faulconbridge heaves a sigh of relief, and draws an optimistic moral from all that has gone before.
Posted October 18 2021
340
Mr Gradgrind and a Government expert on education make sure that the children of Coketown have the right opinions about everything.
Mr Gradgrind is ready to hand Coketown’s model school over to zealous Mr M’Choakumchild, fresh from teacher-training. Present on this auspicious occasion is a gentleman from the Government, who believes that the purpose of education is to mass-produce identical batches of priggish little human vials filled to the brim with State-approved Facts, and empty of everything else.
Posted October 13 2021
341
A sophisticated City Mouse went to see his Country cousin, and pitied his simple fare.
Horace, a former military officer who was given a roving brief in the government of Emperor Augustus, chafed under the anxious bustle and empty chatter of life in Rome, and yearned for a quiet talk over beans, greens and streaky bacon in his rural bolt-hole. A sympathetic neighbour was apt to launch into the following tale to humour him.
Posted October 6 2021
342
In Jim Baker’s considered opinion, the bluejay had a much better command of language than Mark Twain’s cats did.
While walking in the woods near Heidelberg, Mark Twain was subjected to a barrage of derisory comment by three ravens. Not that he pretended to understand their language, but he got the gist of it well enough. That set him thinking about talking animals, and remembering what grizzled Californian miner Jim Baker had once told him about the ravens’ cousin, the bluejay.
Posted October 2 2021