Wherefore I beſeech every one whom it may concern, to put on a ſerious displicence, upon theſe occaſions, that they may not incurre this menace of Chriſt

At home, I see intolerance, various forms of prejudice, demonisation and the exploitation of fear – the last like shooting at the side of a barn, in the American context – at work in our Trumpophobia. This is the soft despotism of the American neoliberal.

I am afraid Jim Crow was a hardened sinner, and, alas! we had no one on board duly qualified to do for him with bell, book and candle what had been done ages before to his ancestor at Rheims.

If I know from the diary that I used to believe P, then all else being equal, this gives me a reason now to believe P.