Tea at Trianon: Literature and the Continuity of Christian Culture

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

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Literature and the Continuity of Christian Culture

Mitchell Kalpakgian discusses how great literature promotes the continuity of Christendom. To quote:

Limited only to the liberal ideologies of modern politics and Supreme Court decisions and to Hollywood's skewed renditions of love and marriage, younger generations who never read or study works such as Austen's Pride and Prejudice or Alcott's Little Women never grasp the profound realism of traditional sexual norms. In Austen's novel romance requires courtship and manners, and first impressions matter. Marriage involves the union of both the body and the soul, has a moral dimension, for a man and a woman must admire the moral character of the person they marry; and marriage, always an event full of wonder, has a romantic, mysterious dimension based on a powerful attraction between two persons who elicit the best in each other. Marriage is also a great civilizing institution, has a social dimension and involves the union of two families, not just two individuals. The faithfulness of married couples, the generosity of families in welcoming new life, the sanctity of chastity are the norms of love in Little Women. As Jo March remarks in Little Women, "I do think that families are the most beautiful things in all the world!" Peer culture and political correctness never introduce these enduring ideals to a young generation saturated by sex education and the contraceptive mentality for whom cohabitation either replaces or cheapens marriage. Share