Tea at Trianon: The Necessity of Comparison

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

Saturday, February 11, 2023

The Necessity of Comparison

From Melody Lyons at The Essential Mother:

October was full of surprises this year, which included seeing my name published in the infamous America Magazine. To my great relief, the article was critical of me, which is the only way I ever hope to appear in a dissident publication. I might have remained ignorant of the thing except for an email I received which linked the article. The message, from someone who profoundly disagrees with much of what I believe, read something like this:

You should humble yourself and apologize for the terrible things you write.

The email arrived while I was mid-sickness with the Fauci flu. Reading the chastisement through the fog of illness, I wondered, What the heck did I write? Such a relief to find, after a quick skim, that it was much ado about nothing. I returned to the more necessary task of breathing and didn’t look again at the article until December.

I hadn’t planned to respond at all, but there is merit in correcting lies which the author promotes using my name. And because her erroneous ideas are spreading like a virus through the Church, it is worth engaging. (Read more.)