We might continue this list for
many pages. It is no matter of mere chance that our modern
bill-of-fare is printed in French. The very difficult art of
decent cooking, one of the highest expressions of civilisation,
was first practiced for the benefit of the great Monarch. The
age of Louis XIV was a time of splendour and grace which can
still teach us a lot.
Unfortunately this brilliant picture has another side which
was far less encouraging. Glory abroad too often means
misery at home, and France was no exception to this rule
Louis XIV succeeded his father in the year 1643. He died in
the year 1715. That means that the government of France
was in the hands of one single man for seventy-two years,
almost two whole generations.
It will be well to get a firm grasp of this idea, ``one single
man.'' Louis was the first of a long list of monarchs who in
many countries established that particular form of highly efficient
autocracy which we call ``enlightened despotism.'' He
did not like kings who merely played at being rulers and
turned official affairs into a pleasant picnic. The Kings of
that enlightened age worked harder than any of their subjects.
They got up earlier and went to bed later than anybody else,
and felt their ``divine responsibility'' quite as strongly as their
``divine right'' which allowed them to rule without consulting
their subjects.
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