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Article: The decent drapery of life.(The Moral Imagination: From Edmund Burke to Lionel Trilling)(Book Review)
- Article from:
- First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life
- Article date:
- March 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Institute on Religion and Public Life. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE MORAL IMAGINATION: FROM EDMUND BURKE TO LIONEL TRILLING
by GERTRUDE HIMMELFARB Ivan R. Dee, 288 pages, $26
IN THE FRENCH Revolution's "empire of light and reason," Edmund Burke observed, "all the decent drapery of life is to be rudely torn off. All the super-added ideas, furnished from the wardrobe of a moral imagination, which the heart owns, and the understanding ratifies" are to be discarded and lost to future generations.
The idea of a "moral imagination" is compelling at first hearing, but also slightly odd, if one thinks about it for a moment. Burke lived at the moment of transition for the imagination--a moment of transition for much ...