“It is a great pity that we in the United States do not have our own Roger Scruton. As              his . . . collection of essays reminds us, he is an accomplished philosopher who writes    trenchantly about many important political, social and religious issues, who cares passionately about art and culture and who is also a brilliant conservative polemicist. . . .      “Mr. Scruton has two great virtues as a critic. One is his ability to combine a delicate appreciation of culture with the robust analytical skills of a trained philosopher. . . .      “Mr. Scruton’s other great virtue is his habit of assessing things from the inside, taking them on their own terms. If his judgments are often harsh, one nevertheless comes away feeling that he has made the best case possible for his subject. This makes his        criticism more devastating yet also more generous than the criticism of most other        commentator.” – Roger Kimball, New York Times Book Review “Each essay has been