Man Among Men

The wedding reception was held in an old Cambridge college. We gathered in a wood-paneled room with a big fireplace, and black-vested waiters drifted by, handing out drinks from gleaming silver trays. I found myself next to two historians arguing about Edmund Burke. The tall historian had just read an essay claiming that Burke, above all, was a man of the Enlightenment. “Not true,” said the short historian. “Burke believed that society was composed of overlapping spheres of influence; he’s not a man of the Enlightenment but the Medieval Age.” “It’s a fair point,” the tall historian said. “But if one wants to know Burke, one should remember the obvious fact that he was a parliamentarian.”