Tea at Trianon: The Young and the Restless

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, May 7, 2007

The Young and the Restless

The Western Confucian has an interesting article by Camille Paglia about how the "teenage years" are a modern phenomenon. In other times, people were given more responsibility at an earlier age, which was not always a good thing, but neither is it good for the formative years to be a self-indulgent romp. Share

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: More specifically, the 'dreaded teen years' is a western modern phenomenon. I am constantly amazed at how great teens are in India to their parents! They'd never dream of doing drugs or dating or being disrespectful. And they are spoiled in the sense they do not have to work, except for school work. I often lament that we have lost this in the US.; May 7, 2007 at 2:07:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: Good point, Georgette.; May 7, 2007 at 2:41:00 PM EDT
Anonymous said...: My generation of the 50's were the first to be called teenagers. My sister's generation were all fighting in WW II. Our parents generation started working at 12 and 13 and even younger. They were either on farms or in factories. I recall some sociologist in the 60's making that observation, that the 50's adolescents marked the beginning of the phenomenon of 'teenagers'.; May 7, 2007 at 11:56:00 PM EDT
Anonymous said...: Well I have just written a very politically incorrect post on my own blog. One of the people I have chosen is Paris Hilton..as I wrote in my acid drop way...what is this girl famous for????What???

So take a peek at my latest post from a Grumpy Ole Woman LOL!

Yours in humour

Marie; May 8, 2007 at 3:03:00 AM EDT