George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life
George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life
George Selwyn (1719-1791) was the kind of man who made enemies merely by being too clever, and his letters prove he never apologized for it. This collection, edited and published in the late 19th century, gathers correspondence from one of the 18th century's most notorious wits, a figure whose razor-sharp observations about politics, society, and human nature made him both essential and dangerous to know. Selwyn moved through the highest circles of Georgian England, trading barbs with politicians, aristocrats, and literary figures who knew that a dinner invitation from him might end with their reputation slightly singed but thoroughly entertained. The letters reveal not just a man of relentless intelligence but an entire world: the maneuvering of power, the rituals of social combat, and the particular cruelty of the educated class when bored. These are not dignified state papers but the messy, vicious, hilarious real thoughts of someone who understood that the point of life was to see it clearly and describe it mercilessly. For readers who have ever wanted to listen in on history's most brilliant conversations,Selwyn's letters offer exactly that, a front-row seat to the age that invented the modern satirical voice.
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“The Old Testament records the sage words of an old woman in addressing two younger ones: 'The Lord grant', said Naomi, 'that ye may find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband!' Who ever heard of a woman finding rest in the house of her husband? And yet, and yet ! The restless hearts are not the hearts of wives and of mothers, as many a lonely woman knows. There is no more crushing load than the load of a loveless life. It is a burden that is often beautifully and graciously borne, but its weight is a very real one. The mother may have a bent form, a furrowed brow, and worn, thin hands ; but her heart found its rest for all that. Naomi was an old woman; she knew the world very well, and her words are worth weighing. Heavy luggage is Christ's strange cure for weary hearts.””
— George Augustus Selwyn
“The savage knows nothing of 'the law of Christ.' He will bear no other's burden. The sick must die; the wounded must perish; the feeble must go to the wall. Only the mightiest and most muscular survive and produce another generation. 'The law of Christ' ends all that. The luggage of life must be distributed. The sick must be nursed; the wounded must be tended; the frail must be cherished. These, too, must be permitted to play their part in the shaping of human destiny. They also may love and wed, and become fathers and mothers. The weaknesses of each are taken back into the blood of the race. The frailty of each becomes part of the common heritage. And, in the last result, if our men are not all Apollos, and if our women do not all resemble Venus de Medici, it is largely because we have millions with us who, but for 'the law of Christ/ operating on rational ideals, would have had no existence at all. In a Christian land, under Christian laws, we bear each other's burdens, we carry each other's luggage. It is the law of Christ, the law of the cross, a sacrificial law. The difference between savagery and civilization is simply this, that we have learned, in our very flesh and blood, to bear each other's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.””
— George Augustus Selwyn
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Selwyn, George Augustus. George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life. Lex, lex-books.com/book/george-selwyn-his-letters-and-his-life-67db8e45-3a47-4448-8f60-2123ea1ceb3d.Selwyn, G. A. (n.d.). George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/george-selwyn-his-letters-and-his-life-67db8e45-3a47-4448-8f60-2123ea1ceb3dSelwyn, George Augustus. George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/george-selwyn-his-letters-and-his-life-67db8e45-3a47-4448-8f60-2123ea1ceb3d.
