A story of old Irish hero Daniel O’Connell, quoted in Sean O’Faolain’s biography : I remember I was once counsel before Judge Day for a man who had stolen some goats. The fact was proved; whereupon I produced to old Day an old Act of Parliament, empowering the owners of . . . . Continue Reading »
‘How Can I Avoid Being Unlike Other People, If I Am to Produce Stupefaction When I Am as They Are?’
From First ThoughtsFrom Men and Wives by Ivy Compton-Burnett: “Well, my Harriet. Well, my dear, I heard you talking in a way that reminded me of our youth. I said to myself, ‘Why, there is my Harriet chattering like a girl!’ This is a brave morning for you.” “Godfrey,” said . . . . Continue Reading »
Dr. Malherbe of Natal University said to Field Marshal Smuts as he left a political meeting, “Why were those two hecklers at the back so bitterly hostile?” Smuts replied, “I understand the feelings of one of them very well indeed. He and I were brought up together in the same . . . . Continue Reading »
Rebecca Solnit Should Blame the Internet, Not the Left (And Definitely Not Our ‘Puritan Heritage’)
From First ThoughtsNever reach for a grand explanation when a simpler one will do, and when your explanation is to blame the Puritans, you can be pretty certain there’s a simpler option available. Rebecca Solnit is frustrated that so many liberals are letting occasional policy disagreements blind them to the . . . . Continue Reading »
Paradoxes of Political Temperament, in Relation to an Episode between Gladstone and Disraeli
From First ThoughtsThe most well-known paradox of liberal and conservative temperaments is that humanitarians tend to be moved by mankind in the abstract but callous or even cruel to individual men, while many reactionaries and misanthropes are noted for their private generosity. Other such paradoxes include the . . . . Continue Reading »
‘From Time to Time, Men of Great Intellectual Powers Would Ask to Be Put to Work’
From First ThoughtsFrom Daniel Patrick Moynihan: A Portrait in Letters : My impression of Republicans, after living among them as an interested and sympathetic observer for almost two years, [is that] as a group you have almost no confidence that any serious thinker could be with you on any issue of consequence. . . . . Continue Reading »
From F.E.: The Life of F.E. Smith, the First Earl of Birkenhead . Our hero is defending a tram company being sued by the family of a boy injured on the tracks: It was alleged that this boy could no longer work and was unable to raise his arm above the level of his shoulder. Smith was sympathetic . . . . Continue Reading »
If Conservatism Has Gotten Dumbed Down, It’s Not from Any Rout of the Traditionalists
From First ThoughtsIf you ask me why conservatism has become intellectually impoverished, my answer is going to be a lot more prosaic than David Brooks’s. He starts his decline-of-the-conservative-mind column with a relatively rare allusion to his years working for National Review , and I could do the same but . . . . Continue Reading »
I don’t want to be one of those women who spends all her time denigrating other women’s life choices, but I have to say that of all the tattoos to get, the full text of William Carlos Williams’s “The Red Wheelbarrow” has got to be one of the worst imaginable. . . . . Continue Reading »
The blogger called Miss Self-Important has said in response to this post of mine that my hostility to meritocracy, far from being radical, is now the consensus view, especially among meritocrats themselves. This is wonderful if true. She also says that critics of meritocracy who themselves have . . . . Continue Reading »
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