Tea at Trianon: The Return of Decency

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

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

The Return of Decency

Elisa, one of the regular readers of this blog, sent me an article from The Washington Post about young ladies choosing modest, classic clothing over skimpy attire. To quote:

William Strauss, co-author of "Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation," said teenagers are faced with the opposite social problem of their baby boomer parents. They are growing up at a time when sex is talked about freely -- perhaps too freely.

"Modesty is a reaction against the sexualization of the culture, including fashion," he said. "What tends to happen in history is generations correct for what they perceive to be the major excesses of previous generations. . . . They're trying to reestablish a zone of privacy."

Michelle Therese said...: Finally and THANK GOD! Yes, I think a return to privacy is absolutely necessary! We can't live our lives wide open like we do - it cheapens everything!; June 6, 2007 at 12:34:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: It truly does!; June 7, 2007 at 4:49:00 PM EDT