Tea at Trianon: Dating To Break Up

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, September 25, 2025

Dating To Break Up

From Of Home and Womanhood:

We’ve built a culture where dating isn’t preparation for marriage.
It’s preparation for breaking up.
From the moment you’re old enough to notice the opposite sex, you’re expected to “date around,” “see what’s out there,” “have fun.” That sounds harmless enough until you realize what it really means: you’re rehearsing how to start and end relationships on repeat. You’re practicing attachment and detachment. You’re practicing being used and using others. By the time you’re actually ready for marriage, the only muscle you’ve trained is the one that walks away.
No one tells you that. No one tells you that habits in love work the same way habits in anything else do, you get good at what you practice. And most modern dating is relentless practice in the art of leaving.
The beginning of a relationship is intoxicating.
It’s new. It’s electric. Every glance feels charged, every conversation feels like an event. Your brain floods with dopamine and oxytocin, the neurochemical cocktail that tells you this person is special.
We aren’t taught that the first chapter is supposed to fade. We’re taught to fear the fade. We’re told that the butterflies are proof of love, and when they’re gone, love must be gone too. No wonder so many people spend their entire romantic lives chasing the next “first time.” (Read more.)