Tea at Trianon

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

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Happy Family

It's official. Children bring happiness.

A proper understanding of parenting means not choosing between children-as-moral-obligation and children-as-household-accessory, but instead connecting the quotidian demands and pleasures of parenthood with a responsible vision of the good life. Having children is fraught with emotional and material challenges, but in a decent society and a setting of relative affluence, parenting ought to bring satisfaction in the form of measurable and reportable emotional well-being: children ought to make us happy in the least sophisticated sense of the word. If they instead bring distress and depression, we are doing something wrong, as parents and as a culture.

Balancing Family and Career

Some advice from an author. Share

Friday, November 7, 2008

The Triumph of Marxism

This article, written the day before the election by a conservative European, needs to be read in its entirety. Some excellent points are made.

The term "Fascist" is so misused that people no longer remember its original meaning. A "Fascist" is now any person to the right of Hillary Clinton, especially if he's white and doesn't like Multiculturalism. However, the personality cult surrounding Obama is a traditional hallmark of Fascist and Communist societies. When an average voter dared to ask a few critical questions about Obama's Socialist sympathies, he was virtually ambushed by members of the mainstream media. This is the kind of behavior one expects to see in authoritarian societies when someone questions the Divine Wisdom of the Great Leader. It is disappointing and not very reassuring to see it in the land of the free, home of the brave. As journalist Nidra Poller put it: "The chance encounter between Barack Obama and a commoner—Joe the Plumber—not only exposed the Hope & Change candidate's plan for redistribution of wealth, it also revealed his attitude toward the ordinary guys he has pledged to serve. Leftists everywhere love the wretched of the earth…as long as the poor stay poor and the downtrodden downtrodden."

Tomorrow is her feast. As the Bride of Christ, she meditated on the Divine Indwelling. (More HERE.) In her own words:

O my beloved Christ, crucified for love, would that I might be for you a spouse of your heart! I would anoint you with glory, I would love you - even unto death! Yet I sense my frailty and ask you to adorn me with yourself; identify my soul with all the movements of your soul, submerge me, overwhelm. me, substitute yourself in me that my life may become but a reflection of your life. Come into me as Adorer, Redeemer and Saviour.

O Eternal Word, Word of my God, would that I might spend my life listening to you, would that I might be fully receptive to learn all from you; in all darkness, all loneliness, all weakness, may I ever keep my eyes fixed on you and abide under your great light; O my Beloved Star, fascinate me so that I may never be able to leave your radiance.

Soviet Atrocities

There is much that has been forgotten. Share

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Madame Adelaide of France

She was Louis XVI's old maid auntie who made many difficulties for the young Marie-Antoinette, including the coining of the nickname L'Autrichienne. This devout lady probably had no inkling that her censure of a fourteen year old, based almost solely upon the girl's nationality and the rancor of the aunts towards the Austrian alliance, were pebbles in a landslide of ill-feelings towards the future Queen. Share

Ending the Mommy Wars

How to love our fellow mothers.

Perhaps the next time we are tempted to judge another mother or the decisions she has made, we can step back and take a moment to reflect. We can remember that we don’t want our parenting to be judged and that we should give others the same courtesy. We can also remember that motherhood is hard and we don’t know what challenges the mothers we encounter are facing. We can recall that Jesus told us to love one another. We need to respect and support our fellow mothers on this difficult journey. We need to stand by each other and encourage each other, not tear each other down. Hopefully, then, the “mommy wars” could come to an end.

A New America

This morning I awoke to an America which, for the most part, cares nothing about extending the slaughter of the unborn. While the fact of infanticide bothers me, it obviously does not bother many other people. I am amazed at how many are not bothered by it at all, even after everything that science has shown us about life in the womb. There is no excuse for such callous disregard of unborn babies. As for our president elect, his voting record is public; it has not been hidden. He has been very open about his opinion on abortion; it is no secret. Yet it seems not to matter, not even to many Roman Catholics.

Many fellow citizens also are completely unconcerned about living under socialism. People seem to want the government to take care of them, but being taken care of often means ceding one's civil rights. It must be admitted, our country has been creeping in this direction for many, many years. What we face now did not happen over night. The groundwork has been laid by past leaders, many of whom have portrayed themselves as being conservative.

Perhaps it is human nature to look to politics for solutions to all problems. People want a political savior, someone who will make life in this world easier and more tolerable. We expect our leaders to be omnipotent, to accomplish things that are beyond the scope of one person to achieve. Of course, politics should be used as a tool for doing good, for working towards social justice. However, I have come to believe that some evils will be vanquished only when hearts are changed, when minds are enlightened to true goodness. To change minds and hearts is ultimately beyond human power; there is only one Savior. Let us trust Him, and not in human institutions and political parties.
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A Life in Nature

Under the Gables examines the life and work of Beatrix Potter.

All of her life, Beatrix leapt from science to art to fancy and back again as effortlessly as a child playing hopscotch. She started out at as a precocious naturalist, sketching and painting the animals that she managed to draw close to her during summer vacations in Scotland. Her purpose was to capture the subject with ever-increasing accuracy. For every adorable mouse in a print apron or rabbit in a blue coat on the pages of her little books, there were probably hundreds of sketches and paintings of this animal over years. The secret to the charm of her anthropomorphism is the precision of her knowledge of the responses of the creature in movement and emotion.