LEWISTON – If Marie Antoinette had been among more than 450 incoming freshmen at the Bates College convocation ceremonies Wednesday afternoon, she would be well-equipped to deal with months of well-intentioned parental advice.

After all, “Parents, because they are parents, cannot help themselves.” That was the message of John R. Cole, Thomas Hedley Reynolds Professor of History, who delivered the address launching the college’s 153rd academic year. He drew on parallels between the students and the ill-fated and ultimately beheaded queen of the French Revolution, who was sent off to France to marry the future Louis XVI by her mother, the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa.

In frequent letters from Vienna to her 14-year-old daughter in Versailles, the empress admonished: “Dress Right, Stand Right, Play Right, Ride Right, Write Right . . .”

Cole made that the title of his talk, and he emphasized that the mother’s strong advice urged judicious placement of trust.

While Marie Antoinette faced betrayal by enemies of the throne, Cole told the Bates newcomers, “Self-doubt might be your worst enemy.”

Another theme employed by Cole was based on a statement by the empress to Marie Antoinette – “So there you are, where Providence has destined you to live.”

Cole told the students, “There is an essential rightness about your presence here at this stage of your lives.” He said, “You can be confident in yourselves and your promise,” and he concluded, “Trust yourselves. Trust your situation.”

Elaine Tuttle Hansen, president of Bates, reviewed changes on the campus including new dormitory buildings, construction of Alumni Walk (the former Andrews Road) and a new dining hall to be completed in December. She also emphasized that the Class of 2011 comes to the college as Bates inaugurates curriculum changes.

“We not only anticipate, but encourage growth, change, adaptation,” she said.

William Jack, a senior from the town of Bowdoin who is president of the Bates College student government, noted that participants and audience at the convocation covered a tenure of 40 years down to new arrivals of four days ago.

Cole, a resident of New Gloucester, has served on the Bates faculty for 40 years and since 1992 has held the Reynolds professorship, which is named after a past president of the college. With a focus on the history of democratic ideas, Cole teaches courses about ancient Greece, France in the 17th and 18th centuries, and 18th-century English feminist Mary Wollstonecraft.

The Rev. William Blaine-Wallace, multifaith chaplain, delivered the benediction.

About 1,660 students will be on the Bates campus this fall, while 193 will be attending Bates-sponsored programs off campus. The Bates College Class of 2011 consists of 445 first-year students and 15 transfer students. Only one applicant in every 10 was chosen from a record pool of 4,650 admission-seekers.

New students live in 39 states and 30 foreign countries, from Bangladesh to Zimbabwe. Half the members of the entering class live outside New England. Nine percent of the new arrivals, and 10 percent of all actively enrolled Bates students, are from Maine.