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Joseph de Maistre had no doubt that the root causes of the French
Revolution were intellectual and ideological. The degeneration of
its first immense hopes into the Reign of Terror was not the result
of a ruthless competition for power or of prospects of war. He
echoed Voltaire's boast that "books did it all." The philosophers
of the Enlightenment were the architects of the new regimes; and
the shadow between revolutionary idea and social reality could be
traced directly to a fatal flaw in their thought. De Maistre
asserts that society is the product, not of men's conscious
decision, but of their instinctive makeup. Both history and
primitive societies illustrate men's gravitation toward some form
of communal life. Since government is in this sense natural, it can
not legitimately be denied, revoked, or even disobeyed by the
people. Sovereignty is not the product of the deliberation or the
will of the people; it is a divinely bestowed authority fitted not
to man's wishes but to his needs. The French Revolution to de
Maistre's mind was little more than the expansion, conversion,
pride, and consequent moral corruption of the philosophers. It
differs in essence from all previous political revolutions, finding
a parallel only in the biblical revolt against heaven. These
sentiments are the passionate and awe-inspired language of one who
sees the political struggles of his time on a huge and cosmic
scale, judges events sub specie aeternitatis (under the aspect of
eternity), and looks on revolution and counter-revolution as a
battle for the soul of humanity. The force of this classic volume
still resonates in present-day ideological struggles.
Joseph de Maistre had no doubt that the root causes of the
French Revolution were intellectual and ideological. The
degeneration of its first immense hopes into the Reign of Terror
was not the result of a ruthless competition for power or of
prospects of war. He echoed Voltaire's boast that "books did it
all." The philosophers of the Enlightenment were the architects of
the new regimes; and the shadow between revolutionary idea and
social reality could be traced directly to a fatal flaw in their
thought.
De Maistre asserts that society is the product, not of men's
conscious decision, but of their instinctive makeup. Both history
and primitive societies illustrate men's gravitation toward some
form of communal life. Since government is in this sense natural,
it can not legitimately be denied, revoked, or even disobeyed by
the people. Sovereignty is not the product of the deliberation or
the will of the people; it is a divinely bestowed authority fitted
not to man's wishes but to his needs.
The French Revolution to de Maistre's mind was little more than
the expansion, conversion, pride, and consequent moral corruption
of the philosophers. It differs in essence from all previous
political revolutions, finding a parallel only in the biblical
revolt against heaven. These sentiments are the passionate and
awe-inspired language of one who sees the political struggles of
his time on a huge and cosmic scale, judges events sub specie
aeternitatis (under the aspect of eternity), and looks on
revolution and counter-revolution as a battle for the soul of
humanity. The force of this classic volume still resonates in
president-day ideological struggles.
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Voyage Around My Room (Paperback)
Xavier De Maistre; Translated by Stephen Sartarelli; Introduction by Richard Howard; Preface by Joseph De Maistre
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R387
Discovery Miles 3 870
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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In 1790, while serving in the Piedmontese army, the French
aristocrat Xavier de Maistre (1763-1852) was punished for dueling
and placed under house arrest for forty-two days. The result was a
discursive, mischievous memoir Voyage Around My Room, and its
sequel, Nocturnal Expedition Around My Room. Admired by Nietzsche
and Machado de Assis, Ossian and Susan Sontag, this classic book
proves that sitting on the living-room sofa can be as fascinating
as crossing the Alps or paddling up the Amazon. In addition to the
Voyage and Expedition, this edition also includes the dialogue "The
Leper of the City of Aosta," a preface by Xavier's better-known
older brother (the royalist philosopher Joseph de Maistre), and an
introduction by Richard Howard.
St. Alphonsus writes: "a single bad book will be sufficient to
cause the destruction of a monastery." Pope Pius XII wrote in 1947
at the beatification of Blessed Maria Goretti: "There rises to Our
lips the cry of the Saviour: 'Woe to the world because of scandals
' (Matthew 18:7). Woe to those who consciously and deliberately
spread corruption-in novels, newspapers, magazines, theaters,
films, in a world of immodesty " We at St. Pius X Press are calling
for a crusade of good books. We want to restore 1,000 old Catholic
books to the market. We ask for your assistance and prayers. This
book is a photographic reprint of the original. The original has
been inspected and some imperfections may remain. At Saint Pius X
Press our goal is to remain faithful to the original in both
photographic reproductions and in textual reproductions that are
reprinted. Photographic reproductions are given a page by page
inspection, whereas textual reproductions are proofread to correct
any errors in reproduction.
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