Tea at Trianon: How to be Feminine

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

Thursday, March 27, 2014

How to be Feminine

Some pleasant and helpful reflections from The Catholic Lady Blog. To quote:

A modest spirit is rare. Women are taught to get what they want with the "I am woman hear me roar" attitude. It doesn't work. People don't know how to respond. Men especially are affected adversely by this attitude. (This could possible be why men are becoming more feminine by the generation.) We live in an epidemic of feminism!

But a woman possessing a "modest and quiet" spirit (1Tim 2:9-10) appeals to the higher nature of men and is mysteriously attractive! Wearing a mantilla to Church is an example of this sweet mystique of femininity.

This does not mean a lady must be shy, just conscious of her femininity. This means being cheerful, helpful, well-mannered. St. Francis de Sales says, "I would have devout people, whether men or women, the best dressed of the company, but the least pompous and affected. I would have them adorned with gracefulness, decency, and dignity."

There is no prudishness for a Catholic lady. Rather, modesty is the trademark of her spirit. (Read more.)