Tea at Trianon: How a Child Learns to Confront the World

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, March 17, 2021

How a Child Learns to Confront the World

From Return to Order:

In the traditional family, the child has many supports. First of all, he has the love of his family members. Next, he has the physical, psychological and even moral similarities provided by heredity and last he has the support of tradition – of customs, ways of being and family history. When properly understood, these qualities make the child proud of who he is. It gives him a sense of his value in society as the continuation of a family line.
In such a family, the child has three distinct levels of public before which he must affirm his individuality. First, he has his immediate family that is most similar to him and among whom he is highly uninhibited. It is the atmosphere where he senses the most love as well. Among this public, he has the least difficulty in affirming those things which make him different from others.
However, if this were the only public the child had to deal with, he still may not have the courage and self-esteem to affirm his unique qualities before the public at large which is entirely different from him. This is where the second public comes into the play which is the extended family. In the extended family, the child still senses the affection of the family bond, but less than he does amid his immediate family.

He also senses the similarities that exist between himself and his cousins, aunts and uncles and so forth, but there are fewer of these similarities then there are amid his immediate family and more differences. This gives him the ideal “testing grounds,” if you will, where he can practice affirming his own personality and uniqueness with a variety of others, but still in an atmosphere of love, support and similarity. (Read more.)