“Tamed by elegance”

European chivalry had tied manliness to gentleness and had [according to Bertrand de Jouvenel] “subdued the fierceness of pride and power.” In Christian Europe, authority had been tamed by elegance and “subdued by manners.” But modern rationalist philosophy, vulgarized by the revolutionaries, had no place for taste, elegance, or even moral self-restraint. Its cold, calculating rationality undermined the “love, veneration, admiration, or attachment” that connect people to their commonwealth. In [Edmund] Burke’s view, public affections, combined with manners, are required as “supplements,” correctives” and “aids” to the law. The French Revolution left “another inheritance, it…hallowed violence.” ~ Excerpt from Daniel J. Mahoney’s Bertrand de Jouvenel

* Featured image, The Temptation of Sir Percival by Arthur Hacker