Amen?

I love Paris in the spring, and I spent a lot of time outside today enjoying the beautiful weather. This trip has been wonderful in helping me learn more about the history of France; I have been to Paris several times, but I knew very little about the French Revolution until this course.

I enjoyed the non-fiction readings (Burke, Paine, Wollstonecraft, and Williams) and the poetry, all of which heightened my understanding of the various aspects of the Revolution. In his Brief Introduction, Doyle notes that the history of the Revolution is complicated, and that seems to be an understatement. The Revolution was born of a desire for equality and basic human rights, but the pendulum swung too far, leading to terror and fear.

At the end of Book Two of the Emigrants, Smith writes a prayer of sorts. It’s unclear to whom or what she is praying–God? a god? Man? Nature? While she laments “the variety of woes that Man For Man creates,” she pleads for the listener to:

Teach the hard hearts

Of rulers, that the poorest hind, who dies

For their unrighteous quarrels, in thy sight

Is equal to the imperious Lord, that leads

His disciplin’d destroyers to the field.—

She seeks an end to “Pride, Oppression, Avarice, and Revenge.” And, finally, she prays for “[t]he reign of Reason, Liberty, and Peace!” All that seems to be missing from Smith’s prayer is the “amen.”

Smith ends on an optimistic note, as does my trip. Seeing the key sites while reading about key events greatly enhanced my understanding of the Revolution. Today’s beautiful afternoon capped a wonderful, educational week.

Amen?

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