7.23.2015

WILLIAM THACKERAY "Barry Lyndon"

 
 
 
HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY
 
"It would require a greater philosopher and historian than I am to explain the causes of the famous Seven Years'War in which Europe was engaged;
 
 and, indeed, its origin has always appeared to me so complicated ,
 
 and the books written about it so amazingly hard to understand,
 
 that I have seldom been much wiser at the end of a chapter  than at the beginning,
 
 and so shall not trouble my reader with any personal disquisitions concerning the matter.
 
 All I know is, that after his Majesty's love of his Hanoverian dominions had rendered him most unpopular in his English kingdom, with Mr.Pitt at the head of the anti-German  war-party,
 
 all of a sudden, Mr.Pitt becoming Minister, the rest of the empire applauded the war as much as they had hated it before.
 
Now somehow, we were on the side of Frederick of Prussia : the Empress, the French, the Swedes and the Russians were leagued against us..." (pag.72).
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
"But I speak of the good old days in Europe, before the cowardice of the French aristocracy in the shameful Revolution..." (pag.136).