Tea at Trianon: The Lack of What Ought To Be Is Calling to You

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

Tuesday, November 3, 2026

The Lack of What Ought To Be Is Calling to You

From Matriarch Goals:

The holiday season, or the Mom Olympics as I call it, is the primary means of drafting and converting ourselves, our children, and our friends to the culture of life. It is the most effective tool for evangelization. Not “the discourse,” not door-to-door harassment of non-believers, not college, not even k-12 education. What we do in our homes on Holy Days or holidays is the primary means of giving the faith to our children, building the culture, and establishing our folkways. It’s similar to the habit of sitting down to family dinner, which is the primary means of raising children into a family culture that they will be hard-pressed to abandon or reject.
If you have never looked at the social science surrounding family dinners, please take a moment to acquaint yourself. This one practice is so important, so vastly superior to all other customs of childrearing and family culture formation, that your pediatrician likely asked your mom if the family ever sat down to dinner together in order to assess your general health and well-being when you were a kid. There is no other thing that even comes close to the numerous benefits that family dinner delivers to the human soul, character, and even intellectual formation. (Read more.)