Tea at Trianon: The Cardinal Virtues

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

Sunday, January 10, 2016

The Cardinal Virtues

From The Catholic Gentleman's Guide:

Saint Thomas Aquinas ranked them in this way: Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude. His rationale will be considered when the time is taken in future guides to look at each of the Cardinal Virtues individually. Broadly speaking, these virtues are human virtues, as distinct from the three Theological Virtues. Yet, together with the three Theological Virtues, the Cardinal Virtues form the Seven Virtues, which traditionally counter the Cardinal Sins mentioned above.

Now to the main point of this discussion: Why are they called Cardinal? That answer goes back to the meaning of cardo, cardinis. A “hinge” is something upon which something pivots. Or, when something “hinges” upon something else, it depends upon it, even as a gate depends upon the hinge for it to open and close. Cardinal Virtues are known as Hinge Virtues because all other human and moral virtues pivot upon them. In other words all the other virtues can be categorized under the Cardinal Virtues. In short, if we want to be growing in virtue as Catholic Gentlemen, we’d better understand the four Cardinal Virtues so as to understand how they are at work in all the other virtuous habits we set out to practice. (Read more.)