Tea at Trianon: Know Thyself

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 18, 2025

Know Thyself

From Mater et Magistra:

There’s a phrase that’s been coming up often in our house lately—know thyself. My husband has been repeating it like a kind of guiding principle, something he's come to value more with time. It’s not a new idea, but it’s become a framework for how he thinks about growth, conscience, and conversation.
Know thyself. He has been the one saying it, again and again, as if trying to hammer it into the walls, into our children’s future memories, and into his own reflections.
We’ve always had an interesting dynamic between us—he was raised more secularly than I was, but also more “Catholically” than many of our peers. His conscience is particularly sensitive in some areas—especially those relating to the body and interpersonal integrity—while in other areas, like tarot cards or personality typing, he’s largely unbothered. He’s careful about his moral life, but intellectually curious about psychology and human nature.
What fascinates me is the way we remember, and how that shapes the way we communicate. My husband has an excellent memory. Not just good—precise. He stores conversations like files. He can tell you exactly what was said in a disagreement years ago, where we were sitting, what time of day it was. He remembers events in linear, ordered timelines. If there's a pattern to his mind, it's chronological. (Read more.)