Tea at Trianon: The Backbiting Tongue

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, January 8, 2008

The Backbiting Tongue

Here is an excerpt from a wonderful book called The Backbiting Tongue by Fr Belet, originally published in 1870.

Therefore, what is backbiting or detraction?

Here is the definition given by Saint Thomas Aquinas: "Backbiting is the denigration of a neighbor's reputation by means of secret words." Indeed, a person may wound someone by word in two ways: openly and to his face (that is, by insulting him); and secretly, when he is absent-- and that is backbiting.

Palladius relates that someone once asked Saint Anthony, "What is backbiting?" and the saint replied, "It is every sort of wicked word we dare not speak in front of the person about whom we are talking."

This is truly the nature of backbiters. They cannot do physical harm to those who are absent, so they strike at them with their tongue. Saint Thomas Aquinas says, "Destroying a person's reputation is a very serious wrong." And Saint Bernard declares, "Backbiting is a great vice, a great sin, a great crime."

Anonymous said...: It seems to be a favorite pasttime of this current culture. I believe it is the way many people neutralize the feelings of envy and competitiveness they feel toward others which eats away at them.; January 8, 2008 at 8:57:00 PM EST
papabear said...: I don't know if this sin is more popular now than in the past, since it seems to have always been a great temptation for people living in society. But what we don't get know, as we did in Catholic societies, is the injunction against the sin, or education that it is wrong.

And of course we need to make a proper distinction between public sin (that ought to be criticized), and sin that has become public knowledge.

Especially when we talk about the sins of the famous not because their actions should be condemned, but solely to heap scorn on their person...; January 8, 2008 at 11:10:00 PM EST
Anonymous said...: papabear,I think that phrase...to heap scorn on someone...hits the nail on the head in describing people's motives.; January 9, 2008 at 3:06:00 PM EST
elena maria vidal said...: Yes, he hit the nail on the head!; January 9, 2008 at 8:05:00 PM EST