Tea at Trianon: Growing Up and Growing Old

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 18, 2021

Growing Up and Growing Old

From Seton Magazine:

I know it sounds bizarre, but I actually miss buying diapers and baby food. I wistfully pass the baby section of the supermarket, and get a lump in my throat as I realize that I don’t need anything from there any longer. It’s a different stage of my life now, and I’m sure it has many wonders to come, but I sorely miss the baby-years already.

Happily, I believe that this epoch of my life made me a better man. Because as I look back, it is clearer to me what impact these days had on my soul.

It’s ironic that, as a father, you know that it is your job to protect your children, but I was always struck with the sense that it was they who were protecting me. These little cherubic beings, in all their baptismal innocence, were always a great comfort to me. I often found that the cure from coming home from a fallen, sad, and restless world, was simply to hold these little ones close to my heart. In my experience, there are few things more calming than to simply listen to a baby breathe. Innocence has a harmony, and that is what it sounds like. When they are about two months old, for a few weeks, babies inadvertently smile as they drift off to sleep. To me, that smile spelled the happiness and quiet tranquility of innocence. (Read more.)