The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 06 (of 12)Burke, Edmund
Philosophy
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 06 (of 12)
Burke, Edmund
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1760-1820; Political science -- Early works to 1800
So far as to the French communication here:--what will be the effect of
our communication there? We know that our new brethren, whilst they
everywhere shut up the churches, increased in Paris, at one time at
least fourfold, the opera-houses, the playhouses, the public shows of
all kinds; and even in their state of indigence and distress, no expense
was spared for their equipment and decoration. They were made an affair
of state. There is no invention of seduction, never wholly wanting in
that place, that has not been increased,--brothels, gaming-houses,
everything. And there is no doubt, but, when they are settled in a
triumphant peace, they will carry all these arts to their utmost
perfection, and cover them with every species of imposing magnificence.
They have all along avowed them as a part of their policy; and whilst
they corrupt young minds through pleasure, they form them to crimes.
Every idea of corporal gratification is carried to the highest excess,
and wooed with all the elegance that belongs to the senses. All elegance
of mind and manners is banished. A theatrical, bombastic, windy
phraseology of heroic virtue, blended and mingled up with a worse
dissoluteness, and joined to a murderous and savage ferocity, forms the
tone and idiom of their language and their manners. Any one, who attends
to all their own descriptions, narratives, and dissertations, will find
in that whole place more of the air of a body of assassins, banditti,
housebreakers, and outlawed smugglers, joined to that of a gang of
strolling players expelled from and exploded orderly theatres, with
their prostitutes in a brothel, at their debauches and bacchanals, than
anything of the refined and perfected virtues, or the polished,
mitigated vices of a great capital.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account