Lancelot, or The Knight of the Cart (Illustrated Edition)

It has to be a hoax. But it turns out he's at The Dead Presidents Club where he also interviews, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, Jack Kennedy and other deceased Presidents.

He learns that the Dead Presidents have no confidence in the ability of today's leaders to solve today's great issues. As the interviews continue, he hears how the experiences of the Dead Presidents with problems of the past can provide solutions for the problems of today, most notably, the energy problem, the threat of terrorism and the war in Iraq.

He finds great wisdom and a new perspective from the interviews. But will he find an audience?

This story is a blend of the available historical facts concerning the famed Iceni Queen, with the mythology in Britain at the beginning of the first millennium. It begins four years before the Claudian invasion of Britain, when Boudicca was probably in her early teens, and follows her life through her early training, her marriage to King Prasutagus with whom she has two daughters, and her increasing power with Iceni tribe. The story ends with her death in 61 AD.

In the years after the invasion, the victorious Romans become greedy and when the Prasutagus dies, Boudicca is scourged. In the resulting revolt, she leads an army that slaughters all who side with the Romans. In her rampage she very nearly defeats the Roman army, but when victory escapes her, she commits suicide.

While allegory, fantasy and mysticism are employed, the story remains true to the mores, customs and beliefs of the Celts, as nearly as knowledge permits. Many of the characters, such as Prasutagus, Caratacus, Togodumnus, Cunobelinos, The Roman leaders and the Roman procurator are documented historical figures who were involved in the four hundred year reign of the Romans.

Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him out of two evils to choose the least...