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diff --git a/2528.txt b/2528.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ca2f550 --- /dev/null +++ b/2528.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8897 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Women of the French Salons, by Amelia Gere Mason + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Women of the French Salons + +Author: Amelia Gere Mason + +Posting Date: December 13, 2008 [EBook #2528] +Release Date: February, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WOMEN OF THE FRENCH SALONS *** + + + + +Produced by Theresa Armao + + + + + +THE WOMEN OF THE FRENCH SALONS + +By Amelia Gere Mason + + + + +PREFACE + +It has been a labor of love with many distinguished Frenchmen to recall +the memories of the women who have made their society so illustrious, +and to retouch with sympathetic insight the features which time was +beginning to dim. One naturally hesitates to enter a field that has +been gleaned so carefully, and with such brilliant results, by men +like Cousin, Sainte-Beuve, Goncourt, and others of lesser note. But the +social life of the two centuries in which women played so important a +role in France is always full of human interest from whatever point of +view one may regard it. If there is not a great deal to be said that is +new, old facts may be grouped afresh, and old modes of life and thought +measured by modern standards. + +In searching through the numerous memoirs, chronicles, letters, and +original manuscripts in which the records of these centuries are hidden +away, nothing has struck me so forcibly as the remarkable mental vigor +and the far-reaching influence of women whose theater was mainly a +social one. Though society has its frivolities, it has also its serious +side, and it is through the phase of social evolution that was begun +in the salons that women have attained the position they hold today. +However beautiful, or valuable, or poetic may have been the feminine +types of other nationalities, it is in France that we find the +forerunners of the intelligent, self-poised, clear-sighted, independent +modern woman. It is possible that in the search for larger fields the +smaller but not less important ones have been in a measure forgotten. +The great stream of civilization flows from a thousand unnoted rills +that make sweet music in their course, and swell the current as surely +as the more noisy torrent. The conditions of the past cannot be revived, +nor are they desirable. The present has its own theories and its own +methods. But at a time when the reign of luxury is rapidly establishing +false standards, and the best intellectual life makes hopeless struggles +against an ever aggressive materialism, it may be profitable as well as +interesting to consider the possibilities that lie in a society equally +removed from frivolity and pretension, inspired by the talent, the +sincerity, and the moral force of American women, and borrowing a +new element of fascination from the simple and charming but polite +informality of the old salons. + +It has been the aim in these studies to gather within a limited compass +the women who represented the social life of their time on its +most intellectual side, and to trace lightly their influence upon +civilization through the avenues of literature and manners. Though the +work may lose something in fullness from the effort to put so much into +so small a space, perhaps there is some compensation in the opportunity +of comparing, in one gallery, the women who exercised the greatest power +in France for a period of more than two hundred years. The impossibility +of entering into the details of so many lives in a single volume is +clearly apparent. Only the most salient points can be considered. Many +who would amply repay a careful study have simply been glanced at, and +others have been omitted altogether. As it would be out of the question +in a few pages to make an adequate portrait of women who occupy so +conspicuous a place in history as Mme. De Maintenon and Mme. De Stael, +the former has been reluctantly passed with a simple allusion, and +the latter outlined in a brief resume not at all proportional to the +relative interest or importance of the subject. + +I do not claim to present a complete picture of French society, and +without wishing to give too rose-colored a view, it has not seemed to +me necessary to dwell upon its corrupt phases. If truth compels one +sometimes to state unpleasant facts in portraying historic characters, +it is as needless and unjust as in private life to repeat idle and +unproved tales, or to draw imaginary conclusions from questionable data. +The conflict of contemporary opinion on the simplest matters leads +one often to the suspicion that all personal history is more or less +disguised fiction. The best one can do in default of direct records +is to accept authorities that are generally regarded as the most +trustworthy. + +This volume is affectionately dedicated to the memory of my mother, who +followed the work with appreciative interest in its early stages, but +did not live to see its conclusion. + +Amelia Gere Mason Paris, July 6, 1891 + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + +CHAPTER I. SALONS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY Characteristics of French +Woman--Gallic Genius for Conversation--Social Conditions--Origin of the +Salons--Their Power--Their Composition--Their Records + +CHAPTER II. THE HOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET Mme. De Rambouillet--The +Salon Bleu--Its Habitues--Its +Diversions--Corneille--Balzac--Richelieu--Romance of the +Grand Conde--the Young Bossuet--Voiture--The Duchesse de +Longueville--Angelique Paulet--Julie d'Angennes--Les Precieuses +Ridicules--Decline of the Salon--Influence upon Literature and Manners + +CHAPTER III. MADEMOISELLE DE SCUDERY AND THE SAMEDIS Salons of the +Noblesse--"The Illustrious Sappho"--Her Romances--The Samedis--Bons Mots +of Mme. Cornuel--Estimate of Mlle. De Scudery + +CHAPTER IV. LA GRANDE MADEMOISELLE Her Character--Her Heroic Part in the +Fronde--Her Exile--Literary Diversions of her Salon--A Romantic Episode + +CHAPTER V. A LITERARY SALON AT PORT ROYAL Mme. De Sable--Her +Worldly Life--Her Retreat--Her Friends--Pascal--The Maxims of La +Rochefoucauld--Last Days of the Marquise + +CHAPTER VI. MADAME DE SEVIGNE Her Genius--Her Youth--Her Unworthy +Husband--Her Impertinent Cousin--Her love for her Daughter--Her +Letters--Hotel de Carnavalet--Mme. Duplessis Guengaud--Mme. De +Coulanges--The Curtain Falls + +CHAPTER VII. MADAME DE LA FAYETTE Her Friendship with Mme. De +Sevigne--Her Education--Her Devotion to the Princess Henrietta--Her +Salon--La Rochefoucauld-- Talent as a Diplomatist--Comparison with Mme. +De Maintenon--Her Literary Work--Sadness of her Last Days--Woman in +Literature + +CHAPTER VIII. SALONS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Characteristics of +the Eighteenth Century--Its Epicurean Philosophy--Anecdote of Mme. Du +Deffand--The Salon an Engine of Political Power--Great Influence of +Woman--Salons Defined--Literary Dinners--Etiquette of the Salons--An +Exotic on American Soil + +CHAPTER IX. AN ANTECHAMBER OF THE ACADEMIE FRANCAISE The Marquise de +Lambert--Her "Bureau d'Esprit"--Fontenelle--Advice to her Son--Wise +Thoughts on the Education of Women--Her Love of Consideration--Her +Generosity--Influence of Women upon the Academy + +CHAPTER X. THE DUCHESSE DU MAINE Her Capricious Character--Her +Esprit--Mlle. De Launay--Clever Portrait of her Mistress--Perpetual +Fetes at Sceaux--Voltaire and the "Divine Emilie"--Dilettante Character +of this Salon + +CHAPTER XI. MADAME DE TENCIN AND MADAM DU CHATELET An Intriguing +Chanoinesse--Her Singular Fascination--Her Salon--Its Philosophical +Character--Mlle. Aisse--Romances of Mme. De Tencin--D'Alembert--La Belle +Emilie--Voltaire--the Two Women Compared + +CHAPTER XII. MADAME GEOFFRIN AND THE PHILOSOPHERS Cradles of the New +Philosophy--Noted Salons of this Period--Character of Mme. Geoffrin--Her +Practical Education--Anecdotes of her Husband--Composition of her +Salon--Its Insidious Influence--Her Journey to Warsaw--Her Death + +CHAPTER XIII. ULTRA PHILOSOPHICAL SALONS--MADAME D'EPINAY Mme. De +Graffigny--Baron D'Holbach--Mme. D'Epinay's Portrait of Herself--Mlle. +Quinault--Rousseau--La Chevrette--Grimm--Diderot--The Abbe +Galiani--Estimate of Mme. D'Epinay + +CHAPTER XIV. SALONS OF THE NOBLESSE--MADAME DU DEFFAND La Marechale +de Luxenbourg--The Temple--Comtesse de Boufflers--Mme. Du Dufand--Her +Convent Salon--Rupture with Mlle. De Lespinasse--Her Friendship with +Horace Walpole--Her Brilliancy and her Ennui + +CHAPTER XV. MADEMOISELLE DE LESPINASSE A Romantic Career--Companion +of Mme. Du Deffand--Rival Salons--Association with the +Encyclopedists--D'Alembert--A Heart Tragedy--Impassioned Letters--A Type +Unique in her Age + +CHAPTER XVI. THE SALON HELVETIQUE The Swiss Pastor's Daughter--Her +Social Ambition--Her Friends Mme. De Marchais--Mme. D'Houdetot--Duchesse +de Lauzun--Character of Mme. Necker--Death at Coppet--Close of the Most +Brilliant Period of the Salons + +CHAPTER XVII. SALONS OF THE REVOLUTION--MADAME ROLAND Change in the +Character of the Salons--Mme. De Condorcet--Mme. Roland's Story of +her Own Life--A Marriage of Reason--Enthusiasm for the Revolution--Her +Modest Salon--Her Tragical Fate + +CHAPTER XVIII. MADAM DE STAEL Supremacy of Her Genius--Her Early +Training--Her Sensibility--A Mariage de Convenance--Her Salon--Anecdote +of Benjamin Constant--Her Exile--Life at Coppet--Secret Marriage--Close +of a Stormy Life + +CHAPTER XIX. SALONS OF THE EMPIRE AND RESTORATION--MADAME RECAMIER A +Transition period--Mme. De Montesson--Mme. De Genus--Revival of the +Literary Spirit--Mme. De Beaumont--Mme. De Remusat--Mme. De Souza--Mme. +De Duras--Mme. De Krudener--Fascination of Mme. Recamier--Her +Friends--Her Convent Salon--Chateaubriand Decline of the Salon + + + + +CHAPTER I. SALONS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY + +_Characteristics of French Woman--Gallic Genius for Conversation--Social +Conditions--Origin of the Salons--Their Power--Their Composition--Their +Records._ + +"Inspire, but do not write," said LeBrun to women. Whatever we may think +today of this rather superfluous advice, we can readily pardon a man +living in the atmosphere of the old French salons, for falling somewhat +under the special charm of their leaders. It was a charm full of subtle +flattery. These women were usually clever and brilliant, but their +cleverness and brilliancy were exercised to bring into stronger relief +the talents of their friends. It is true that many of them wrote, +as they talked, out of the fullness of their own hearts or their own +intelligence, and with no thought of a public; but it was only an +incident in their lives, another form of diversion, which left them +quite free from the dreaded taint of feminine authorship. Their peculiar +gift was to inspire others, and much of the fascination that gave them +such power in their day still clings to their memories. Even at this +distance, they have a perpetual interest for us. It may be that the +long perspective lends them a certain illusion which a closer view might +partly dispel. Something also may be due to the dark background against +which they were outlined. But, in spite of time and change, they stand +out upon the pages of history, glowing with an ever-fresh vitality, and +personifying the genius of a civilization of which they were the fairest +flower. + +The Gallic genius is eminently a social one, but it is, of all others, +the most difficult to reproduce. The subtle grace of manner, the magic +of spoken words, are gone with the moment. The conversations of two +centuries ago are today like champagne which has lost its sparkle. +We may recall their tangible forms--the facts, the accessories, the +thoughts, even the words, but the flavor is not there. It is the +volatile essence of gaiety and wit that especially characterizes French +society. It glitters from a thousand facets, it surprises us in a +thousand delicate turns of thought, it appears in countless movements +and shades of expression. But it refuses to be imprisoned. Hence the +impossibility of catching the essential spirit of the salons. We know +something of the men and women who frequented them, as they have left +many records of themselves. We have numerous pictures of their social +life from which we may partially reconstruct it and trace its influence. +But the nameless attraction that held for so long a period the most +serious men of letters as well as the gay world still eludes us. + +We find the same elusive quality in the women who presided over these +reunions. They were true daughters of a race of which Mme. De Graffigny +wittily said that it "escaped from the hands of Nature when there had +entered into its composition only air and fire." They certainly were not +faultless; indeed, some of them were very faulty. Nor were they, as a +rule, remarkable for learning. Even the leaders of noted literary salons +often lacked the common essentials of a modern education. But if they +wrote badly and spelled badly, they had an abundance of that delicate +combination of intellect and wit which the French call ESPRIT. They had +also, in superlative measure, the social gifts which women of genius +reared in the library or apart from the world, are apt to lack. The +close study of books leads to a knowledge of man rather than of men. It +tends toward habits of introspection which are fatal to the clear and +swift vision required for successful leadership of any sort. Social +talent is distinct, and implies a happy poise of character and +intellect; the delicate blending of many gifts, not the supremacy of +one. It implies taste and versatility, with fine discrimination, and +the tact to sink one's personality as well as to call out the best +in others. It was this flexibility of mind, this active intelligence +tempered with sensibility and the native instinct of pleasing, that +distinguished the French women who have left such enduring traces upon +their time. "It is not sufficient to be wise, it is necessary also +to please," said the witty and penetrating Ninon, who thus very aptly +condensed the feminine philosophy of her race. Perhaps she has revealed +the secret of their fascination, the indefinable something which is as +difficult to analyze as the perfume of a rose. + +A history of the French salons would include the history of the entire +period of which they were so prominent a factor. It would make known to +us its statesmen and its warriors; it would trace the great currents of +thought; it would give us glimpses of every phase of society, from the +diversions of the old noblesse, with their sprinkling of literature and +philosophy, to the familiar life of the men of letters, who cast about +their intimate coteries the halo of their own genius. These salons were +closely interwoven with the best intellectual life of more than two +hundred years. Differing in tone according to the rank, taste, or +character of their leaders, they were rallying points for the most +famous men and women of their time. In these brilliant centers, a new +literature had its birth. Here was found the fine critical sense that +put its stamp on a new poem or a new play. Here ministers were created +and deposed, authors and artists were brought into vogue, and vacant +chairs in the Academie Francaise were filled. Here the great philosophy +of the eighteenth century was cradled. Here sat the arbiters of manners, +the makers of social success. To these high tribunals came, at last, +every aspirant for fame. + +It was to the refinement, critical taste, and oral force of a rare +woman, half French and half Italian, that the first literary salons owed +their origin and their distinctive character. In judging of the work of +Mme. De Rambouillet, we have to consider that in the early days of the +seventeenth century knowledge was not diffused as it is today. A new +light was just dawning upon the world, but learning was still locked +in the brains of savants, or in the dusty tomes of languages that were +practically obsolete. Men of letters were dependent upon the favors of +noble but often ignorant patrons, whom they never met on a footing of +equality. The position of women was as inferior as their education, +and the incredible depravity of morals was a sufficient answer to the +oft-repeated fallacy that the purity of the family is best maintained +by feminine seclusion. It is true there were exceptions to this reign +of illiteracy. With the natural disposition to glorify the past, the +writers of the next generation liked to refer to the golden era of the +Valois and the brilliancy of its voluptuous court. Very likely they +exaggerated a little the learning of Marguerite de Navarre, who was said +to understand Latin, Italian, Spanish, even Greek and Hebrew. But +she had rare gifts, wrote religious poems, besides the very secular +"Heptameron" which was not eminently creditable to her refinement, held +independent opinions, and surrounded herself with men of letters. This +little oasis of intellectual light, shadowed as it was with vices, +had its influence, and there were many women in the solitude of remote +chateaux who began to cultivate a love for literature. "The very +women and maidens aspired to this praise and celestial manna of good +learning," said Rabelais. But their reading was mainly limited to his +own unsavory satires, to Spanish pastorals, licentious poems, and their +books of devotion. It was on such a foundation that Mme. De Rambouillet +began to rear the social structure upon which her reputation rests. +She was eminently fitted for this role by her pure character and fine +intelligence; but she added to these the advantages of rank and +fortune, which gave her ample facilities for creating a social center +of sufficient attraction to focus the best intellectual life of the age, +and sufficient power to radiate its light. Still it was the tact and +discrimination to select from the wealth of material about her, and +quietly to reconcile old traditions with the freshness of new ideas, +that especially characterized Mme. De Rambouillet. + +It was this richness of material, the remarkable variety and originality +of the women who clustered round and succeeded their graceful leader, +that gave so commanding an influence to the salons of the seventeenth +century. No social life has been so carefully studied, no women have +been so minutely portrayed. The annals of the time are full of them. +They painted one another, and they painted themselves, with realistic +fidelity. The lights and shadows are alike defined. We know their joys +and their sorrows, their passions and their follies, their tastes and +their antipathies. Their inmost life has been revealed. They animate, +as living figures, a whole class of literature which they were largely +instrumental in creating, and upon which they have left the stamp of +their own vivid personality. They appear later in the pages of Cousin +and Sainte-Beuve, with their radiant features softened and spiritualized +by the touch of time. We rise from a perusal of these chronicles of a +society long passed away, with the feeling that we have left a company +of old friends. We like to recall their pleasant talk of themselves, of +their companions, of the lighter happenings, as well as the more serious +side of the age which they have illuminated. We seem to see their faces, +not their manner, watch the play of intellect and feeling, while they +speak. The variety is infinite and full of charm. + +Mme. de Sevigne talks upon paper, of the trifling affairs of every-day +life, adding here and there a sparkling anecdote, a bit of gossip, a +delicate characterization, a trenchant criticism, a dash of wit, a +touch of feeling, or a profound thought. All this is lighted up by +her passionate love of her daughter, and in this light we read the +many-sided life of her time for twenty-five years. Mme. de La Fayette +takes the world more seriously, and replaces the playful fancy of her +friend by a richer vein of imagination and sentiment. She sketches for +us the court of which Madame (title given to the wife of the king's +brother) is the central figure--the unfortunate Princes Henrietta whom +she loved so tenderly, and who died so tragically in her arms. She +writes novels too; not profound studies of life, but fine and exquisite +pictures of that side of the century which appealed most to her poetic +sensibility. We follow the leading characters of the age through the +ten-volume romances of Mlle. de Scudery, which have mostly long since +fallen into oblivion. Doubtless the portraits are a trifle rose-colored, +but they accord, in the main, with more veracious history. The Grande +Mademoiselle describes herself and her friends, with the curious naivete +of a spoiled child who thinks its smallest experiences of interest to +all the world. Mme. de Maintenon gives us another picture, more serious, +more thoughtful, but illuminated with flashes of wonderful insight. + +Most of these women wrote simply to amuse themselves and their friends. +It was only another mode of their versatile expression. With rare +exceptions, they were not authors consciously or by intention. They +wrote spontaneously, and often with reckless disregard of grammar and +orthography. But the people who move across their gossiping pages are +alive. The century passes in review before us as we read. The men and +women who made its literature so brilliant and its salons so famous, +become vivid realities. Prominent among the fair faces that look out +upon us at every turn, from court and salon, is that of the Duchesse de +Longueville, sister of the Grand Conde, and heroine of the Fronde. Her +lovely blue eyes, with their dreamy languor and "luminous awakenings," +turn the heads alike of men and women, of poet and critic, of statesman +and priest. We trace her brief career through her pure and ardent youth, +her loveless marriage, her fatal passion for La Rochefoucauld, the final +shattering of all her illusions; and when at last, tired of the world, +she bows her beautiful head in penitent prayer, we too love and forgive +her, as others have done. Were not twenty-five years of suffering and +penance an ample expiation? She was one of the three women of whom +Cardinal Mazarin said that they were "capable of governing and +overturning three kingdoms." The others were the intriguing Duchesse de +Chevreuse, who dazzled the age by her beauty and her daring escapades, +and the fascinating Anne de Gonzague, better known as the Princesse +Palatine, of whose winning manners, conversational charm, penetrating +intellect, and loyal character Bossuet spoke so eloquently at her death. +We catch pleasant glimpses of Mme. Deshoulieres, beautiful and a poet; +of Mme. Cornuel, of whom it was said that "every sin she confessed +was an epigram"; of Mme. de Choisy, witty and piquante; of Mme. de +Doulanges, also a wit and femme d'esprit. + +Linked with these by a thousand ties of sympathy and affection were the +worthy counterparts of Pascal and Arnauld, of Bossuet and Fenelon, the +devoted women who poured out their passionate souls at the foot of the +cross, and laid their earthly hopes upon the altar of divine love. We +follow the devout Jacqueline Pascal to the cloister in which she buries +her brilliant youth to die at thirty-five of a wounded conscience and a +broken heart. Many a bruised spirit, as it turns from the gay world +to the mystic devotion which touches a new chord in its jaded +sensibilities, finds support and inspiration in the strong and fervid +sympathy of Jacqueline Arnauld, better known as Mere Angelique of Port +Royal. This profound spiritual passion was a part of the intense life of +the century, which gravitated from love and ambition to the extremes of +penitence and asceticism. + +A multitude of minor figures, graceful and poetic, brilliant and +spirituelles, flit across the canvas, leaving the fragrance of an +exquisite individuality, and tempting one to extend the list of the +versatile women who toned and colored the society of the period. But we +have to do, at present, especially with those who gathered and blended +this fresh intelligence, delicate fancy, emotional wealth, and religious +fervor, into a society including such men as Corneille, Balzac, Bossuet, +Richelieu, Conde, Pascal, Arnault, and La Rochefoucauld--those who are +known as leaders of more or less celebrated salons. Of these, Mme. de +Rambouillet and Mme. de Sable were among the best representative types +of their time, and the first of the long line of social queens who, +through their special gift of leadership, held so potent a sway for two +centuries. + + + + +CHAPTER II. THE HOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET + +_Mme. de Rambouillet--The Salon Bleu--Its Habitues--Its +Diversions--Corneille--Balzac--Richelieu--Romance of the +Grand Conde--The Young Bossuet--Voiture--The Duchesse de +Longueville--Angelique Paulet--Julie d'Angennes--Les Precieuses +Ridicules--Decline of the Salon--Influence upon Literature and Manners_ + +The Hotel de Rambouillet has been called the "cradle of polished +society," but the personality of its hostess is less familiar than that +of many who followed in her train. This may be partly due to the fact +that she left no record of herself on paper. She aptly embodied the kind +advice of Le Brun. It was her special talent to inspire others and to +combine the various elements of a brilliant and complex social life. +The rare tact which enabled her to do this lay largely in a certain +self-effacement and the peculiar harmony of a nature which presented few +salient points. She is best represented by the salon of which she was +the architect and the animating spirit; but even this is better known +today through its faults than its virtues. It is a pleasant task to +clear off a little dust from its memorials, and to paint in fresh colors +one who played so important a role in the history of literature and +manners. + +Catherine de Vivonne was born at Rome in 1588. Her father, the Marquis +de Pisani, was French ambassador, and she belonged through her mother to +the old Roman families of Strozzi and Savelli. Married at sixteen to the +Count d'Angennes, afterwards Marquis de Rambouillet, she was introduced +to the world at the gay court of Henry IV. But the coarse and depraved +manners which ruled there were altogether distasteful to her delicate +and fastidious nature. At twenty she retired from these brilliant scenes +of gilded vice, and began to gather round her the coterie of choice +spirits which later became so famous. + +Filled with the poetic ideals and artistic tastes which had been +nourished in a thoughtful and elegant seclusion, it seems to have been +the aim of her life to give them outward expression. Her mind, which +inherited the subtle refinement of the land of her birth, had taken its +color from the best Italian and Spanish literature, but she was in no +sense a learned woman. She was once going to study Latin, in order to +read Virgil, but was prevented by ill health. It is clear, however, that +she had a great diversity of gifts, with a basis of rare good sense and +moral elevation. "She was revered, adored," writes Mme. de Motteville; +"a model of courtesy, wisdom, knowledge, and sweetness." She is always +spoken of in the chronicles of her time as a loyal wife, a devoted +mother, the benefactor of the suffering, and the sympathetic adviser +of authors and artists. The poet Segrais says: "She was amiable and +gracious, of a sound and just mind; it is she who has corrected the bad +customs which prevailed before her. She taught politeness to all those +of her time who frequented her house. She was also a good friend, and +kind to every one." We are told that she was beautiful, but we know only +that her face was fair and delicate, her figure tall and graceful, and +her manner stately and dignified. Her Greek love of beauty expressed +itself in all her appointments. The unique and original architecture of +her hotel,--which was modeled after her own designs,--the arrangement of +her salon, the pursuits she chose, and the amusements she planned, were +all a part of her own artistic nature. This was shown also in her code +of etiquette, which imposed a fine courtesy upon the members of her +coterie, and infused into life the spirit of politeness, which one of +her countrymen has called the "flower of humanity." But this esthetic +quality was tempered with a clear judgment, and a keen appreciation of +merit and talent, which led her to gather into her society many not "to +the manner born." Sometimes she delicately aided a needy man of letters +to present a respectable appearance--a kindness much less humiliating +in those days of patronage that it would be today. As may readily be +imagined, these new elements often jarred upon the tastes and prejudices +of her noble guests, but in spite of this it was considered an honor to +be received by her, and, though not even a duchess, she was visited by +princesses. + +Adding to this spirit of noble independence the prestige of rank, +beauty, and fortune; a temper of mingled sweetness and strength; +versatile gifts controlled by an admirable reason; a serene and tranquil +character; a playful humor, free from the caprices of a too exacting +sensibility; a perfect savoir-faire, and we have the unusual combination +which enabled her to hold her sway for so many years, without a word of +censure from even the most scandal-loving of chroniclers. + +"We have sought in vain," writes Cousin, "for that which is rarely +lacking in any life of equal or even less brilliancy, some calumny or +scandal, an equivocal word, or the lightest epigram. We have found only +a concert of warm eulogies which have run through many generations.... +She has disarmed Tallemant himself. This caricaturist of the seventeenth +century has been pitiless towards the habitues of her illustrious house, +but he praises her with a warmth which is very impressive from such a +source." + +The modern spirit of change has long since swept away all vestiges of +the old Rue Saint-Thomas-du-Lourvre and the time-honored dwellings that +ornamented it. Conspicuous among these, and not far from the Palais +Royal, was the famous Hotel de Rambouillet. The Salon Bleu has become +historic. This "sanctuary of the Temple of Athene," as it was called +in the stilted language of the day, has been illuminated for us by the +rank, beauty, and talent of the Augustan age of France. We are more or +less familiar with even the minute details of the spacious room, whose +long windows, looking across the little garden towards the Tuileries, +let in a flood of golden sunlight. We picture to ourselves its draperies +of blue and gold, its curious cabinets, its choice works of art, its +Venetian lamps, and its crystal vases always filled with flowers that +scatter the perfume of spring. + +It was here that Mme. de Rambouillet held her court for nearly thirty +years, her salon reaching the height of its power under Richelieu, and +practically closing with the Fronde. She sought to gather all that was +most distinguished, whether for wit, beauty, talent, or birth, into an +atmosphere of refinement and simple elegance, which should tone down all +discordant elements and raise life to the level of a fine art. There +was a strongly intellectual flavor in the amusements, as well as in the +discussions of this salon, and the place of honor was given to genius, +learning, and good manners, rather than to rank. But it was by no means +purely literary. The exclusive spirit of the old aristocracy, with its +hauteur and its lofty patronage, found itself face to face with fresh +ideals. The position of the hostess enabled her to break the traditional +barriers, and form a society upon a new basis, but in spite of the +mingling of classes hitherto separated, the dominant life was that of +the noblesse. Woman of rank gave the tone and made the laws. Their code +of etiquette was severe. They aimed to combine the graces of Italy with +the chivalry of Spain. The model man must have a keen sense of honor, +and wit without pedantry; he must be brave, heroic, generous, gallant, +but he must also possess good breeding and gentle courtesy. The +coarse passions which had disgraced the court were refined into subtle +sentiments, and women were raised upon a pedestal, to be respectfully +and platonically adored. In this reaction from extreme license, +familiarity was forbidden, and language was subjected to a critical +censorship. It was here that the word PRECIEUSE was first used to +signify a woman of personal distinction, accomplished in the highest +sense, with a perfect accord of intelligence, good taste, and good +manners. Later, when pretension crept into the inferior circles which +took this one for a model, the term came to mean a sort of intellectual +parvenue, half prude and half pedant, who affected learning, and paraded +it like fine clothes, for effect. + +"Do you remember," said Flechier, many years later, in his funeral +oration on the death of the Duchesse de Montausier, "the salons which +are still regarded with so much veneration, where the spirit was +purified, where virtue was revered under the name of the incomparable +Arthenice; where people of merit and quality assembled, who composed +a select court, numerous without confusion, modest without constraint, +learned without pride, polished without affectation?" + +Whatever allowance we may be disposed to make for the friendship of the +eminent abbe, he spoke with the authority of personal knowledge, and at +a time when the memories of the Hotel de Rambouillet were still fresh. +It is true that those who belonged to this professed school of morals +were not all patterns of decorum. But we cannot judge by the Anglo-Saxon +standards of the nineteenth century the faults of an age in which a +Ninon de L'Enclos lives on terms of veiled intimacy with a strait-laced +Mme. de Maintenon, and, when age has given her a certain title to +respectability, receives in her salon women of as spotless reputation as +Mme. de La Fayette. Measured from the level of their time, the lives of +the Rambouillet coterie stand out white and shining. The pure character +of the Marquise and her daughters was above reproach, and they were +quoted as "models whom all the world cited, all the world admired, and +every one tried to imitate." To be a precieuse was in itself an evidence +of good conduct. + +"This salon was a resort not only for all the fine wits, but for every +one who frequented the court," writes Mme. de Motteville. "It was a sort +of academy of beaux esprits, of gallantry, of virtue, and of science," +says St. Simon; "for these things accorded marvelously. It was a +rendevous of all that was most distinguished in condition and in merit; +a tribunal with which it was necessary to count, and whose decisions +upon the conduct and reputation of people of the court and the world, +had great weight." + +Corneille read most of his dramas here, and, if report be true, read +them very badly. He says of himself: + + Et l'on peut rarement m'ecouter sans ennui, + Que quand je me produis par la bouche d'autrui. + +He was shy, awkward, ill at ease, not clear in speech, and rather heavy +in conversation, but the chivalric and heroic character of his genius +was quite in accord with the lofty and rather romantic standards +affected by this circle, and made him one of its central literary +figures. Another was Balzac, whose fine critical taste did so much for +the elegance and purity of the French language, and who was as noted +in his day as was his namesake, the brilliant author of the "Comedie +Humaine," two centuries later. His long letters to the Marquise, on the +Romans, were read and discussed in his absence, and it was through +his influence, added to her own classic ideals, that Roman dignity and +urbanity were accepted as models in the new code of manners; indeed, +it was he who introduced the word URBANITE into the language. Armand +du Plessis, who aimed to be poet as well as statesman, read here in his +youth a thesis on love. When did a Frenchman ever fail to write with +facility upon this fertile theme? After he became Cardinal de Richelieu +he feared the influence of the Hotel de Rambouillet, and sent a request +to its hostess to report what was said of him there. She replied with +consummate tact, that her guests were so strongly persuaded of her +friendship for his Eminence, that no one would have the temerity to +speak ill of him in her presence. + +Even the Grand Conde courted the muses, and wrote verses which were bad +for a poet, though fairly good for a warrior. If it be true that every +man is a poet once in his life, we may infer that this was about the +time of his sad little romance with the pretty and charming Mlle. du +Vigean, who was one of the youthful attractions of this coterie. Family +ambition stood in the way of their marriage, and the prince yielded to +the wishes of his friends. The Grande Mademoiselle tells us that this +was the only veritable passion of the brave young hero of many battles, +and that he fainted at the final separation. United to a wife he did not +love, and whom he did not scruple to treat very ill, he gave himself +to glory and, it must be added, to unworthy intrigues. The pure-hearted +young girl buried her beauty and her sorrows in the convent of the +Carmelites, and was no more heard of in the gay world. + +It is evident that the great soldier sometimes forgot the urbanity +which was so strongly insisted upon in this society. He is said to have +carried the impetuosity of his character into his conversation. When he +had a good cause, he sustained it with grace and amiability. If it was a +bad one, however, his eyes flashed, and he became so violent that it was +thought prudent not to contradict him. It is related that Boileau, after +yielding one day in a dispute, remarked in a low voice to a friend: +"Hereafter I shall always be of the opinion of the Prince when he is +wrong." + +Bossuet, when a boy of seventeen, improvised here one evening a sermon +on a given theme, which was so eloquent that it held the company until +near midnight. "I have never heard any one preach so early and so late," +remarked the witty Voiture, as he congratulated the youthful orator at +the close. + +This famous bel esprit played a very prominent part here. His role was +to amuse, and his talents gave him great vogue, but at this distance his +small vanities strike one much more vividly than the wit which flashed +out with the moment, or the vers de societe on which his fame rests. +He owed his social success to a rather high-flown love letter which +he evidently thought too good to be lost to the world. He sent it to a +friend, who had it printed and circulated. What the lady thought does +not appear, but it made the fortune of the poet. Though the son of a +wine merchant, and without rank, he had little more of the spirit of a +courtier than Voltaire, and his biting epigrams were no less feared. +"If he were one of us, he would be insupportable," said Conde. But his +caprices were tolerated for the sake of his inexhaustible wit, and he +was petted and spoiled to the end. + +A list of the men of letters who appeared from time to time at the +Hotel de Rambouillet would include the most noted names of the century, +besides many which were famous in their day, but at present are little +more than historical shadows. The conversations were often learned, +doubtless sometimes pretentious. One is inclined to wonder if these +noble cavaliers and high-born woman did not yawn occasionally over the +scholarly discourse of Corneille and Balzac upon the Romans, the endless +disputes about rival sonnets, and the long discussions on the value of +a word. "Doubtless it is a very beautiful poem, but also very tiresome," +said Mme. de Longueville, after Chapelain had finished reading his +"Pucelle"--a work which aimed to be the Iliad of France, but succeeded +only in being very long and rather heavy. + +This lovely young Princess, who at sixteen had the exaltation of a +religieuse, and was with difficulty won from her dreams of renunciation +and a cloister, had become the wife of a man many years her senior, +whom she did not love, and the idol of the brilliant world in which she +lived. La Rochefoucauld had not yet disturbed the serenity of her heart, +nor political intrigues her peace of mind. It was before the Fronde, in +which she was destined to play so conspicuous a part, and she was still +content with the role of a reigning beauty; but she was not at all +averse to the literary entertainments of this salon, in which her own +fascinations were so delightfully sung. She found the flattering verses +of Voiture more to her taste than the stately epic of Chapelain, took +his side warmly against Benserade in the famous dispute as to the +merits of their two sonnets, "Job" and "Urania," and won him a doubtful +victory. The poems of Voiture lose much of their flavor in translation, +but I venture to give a verse in the original, which was addressed to +the charming princesse, and which could hardly fail to win the favor of +a young and beautiful woman. + + De perles, d'astres, et de fleurs, + Bourbon, le ciel fit tes couleurs, + Et mit dedans tout ce melange + L'esprit d'une ange. + +But the diversions were by no means always grave or literary. Life was +represented on many sides, one secret, doubtless, of the wide influence +of this society. The daughters of Mme. de Rambouillet, and her son, the +popular young Marquis de Pisani, formed a nucleus of youth and gaiety. +To these we may add the beautiful Angelique Paulet, who at seventeen +had turned the head of Henri IV, and escaped the fatal influence of that +imperious sovereign's infatuation by his timely, or untimely, death. +Fair and brilliant, the best singer of her time, skilled also in playing +the lute, and gifted with a special dramatic talent, she was always +a favorite, much loved by her friends and much sung by the poets. Her +proud and impetuous character, her frank and original manners, together +with her luxuriance of blonde hair, gained her the sobriquet of La Belle +Lionne. Nor must we forget Mlle. de Scudery, one of the most constant +literary lights of this salon, and in some sense its chronicler; nor the +fastidious Mme. de Sable. + +The brightest ornament of the Hotel de Rambouillet, however, was Julie +d'Angennes, the petted daughter of the house, the devoted companion and +clever assistant of her mother. Her gaiety of heart, amiable temper, +ready wit, and gracious manners surrounded her with an atmosphere of +perpetual sunshine. Fertile in resources, of fine intelligence, winning +the love alike of men and women, she was the soul of the serious +conversations, as well as of the amusements which relieved them. These +amusements were varied and often original. They played little comedies. +They had mythological fetes, draping themselves as antique gods and +goddesses. Sometimes they indulged in practical jokes and surprises, +which were more laughable than dignified. Malherbe and Racan, the latter +sighing hopelessly over the attractions of the dignified Marquise, gave +her the romantic name of Arthenice, and forthwith the other members of +the coterie took some nom de parnasse, by which they were familiarly +known. They read the "Astree" of d'Urfe, that platonic dream of a +disillusioned lover; discussed the romances of Calprenede and the +sentimental Bergeries of Racan. Such Arcadian pictures seemed to have a +singular fascination for these courtly dames and plumed cavaliers. They +tried to reproduce them. Assuming the characters of the rather insipid +Strephons and florimels, they made love in pastoral fashion, with pipe +and lute--these rustic diversions serving especially to while away the +long summer days in the country at Rambouillet, at Chantilly, or at +Ruel. They improvised sonnets and madrigals; they praised each other in +verse; they wrote long letters on the slightest pretext. As a specimen +of the badinage so much in vogue, I quote from a letter written by +Voiture to one of the daughters of Mme. de Rambouillet, who was an +abbess, and had sent him a present of a cat. + +"Madame, I was already so devoted to you that I supposed you knew there +was no need of winning me by presents, or trying to take me like a rat, +with a cat. Nevertheless, if there was anything in my thought that was +not wholly yours, the cat which you have sent me has captured it." +After a eulogy upon the cat, he adds: "I can only say that it is very +difficult to keep, and for a cat religiously brought up it is very +little inclined to seclusion. It never sees a window without wishing to +jump out, it would have leaped over the wall twenty times if it had +not been prevented, and no secular cat could be more lawless or more +self-willed." + +The wit here is certainly rather attenuated, but the subject is an +ungrateful one. Mme. de Sevigne finds Voiture "libre, badin, charmant," +and disposes of his critics by saying, "So much the worse for those +who do not understand him." One is often puzzled to detect this rare +spirituelle quality; but it is fair to presume that it was of the +volatile sort that evaporates with time. + +All this sentimental masquerading and exaggerated gallantry suggests +the vulnerable side of the Hotel de Rambouillet, and the side which its +enemies have been disposed to make very prominent. Among those who tried +to imitate this salon, Spanish chivalry doubtless degenerated into a +thousand absurdities, and it must be admitted that the salon itself was +not free from reproach on this point. It became the fashion to write +and talk in the language of hyperbole. Sighing lovers were consumed with +artificial fires, and ready to die with affected languors. Like the +old poets of Provence, whose spirit they caught and whose phrases they +repeated, they were dying of love they did not feel. The eyes of Phyllis +extinguished the sun. The very nightingales expired of jealousy, after +hearing the voice of Angelique. + +It would be difficult, perhaps, to find anywhere a company of clever +people bent upon amusing themselves and passing every day more or less +together, whose sayings and doings would bear to be exactly chronicled. +The literary diversions and poetic ideals of this circle, too, gave a +certain color to the charge of affectation, among people of less refined +instincts, who found its esprit incomprehensible, its manners prudish, +and its virtue a tacit reproach; but the dignified and serious character +of many of its constant habitues should be a sufficient guarantee that +it did not greatly pass the limits of good taste and good sense. The +only point upon which Mme. de Rambouillet seems to have been open to +criticism was a certain formal reserve and an over-fastidious delicacy; +but in an age when the standards of both refinement and morals were so +low, this implies a virtue rather than a defect. Nor does her character +appear to have been at all tinged with pretension. "I should fear from +your example to write in a style too elevated," says Voiture, in a +letter to her. But traditions are strong, and people do not readily +adapt themselves to new models. Character and manners are a growth. +That which is put on, and not ingrained, is apt to lack true balance +and proportion. Hence it is not strange that this new order of things +resulted in many crudities and exaggerations. + +It is not worth while to criticize too severely the plumed knights who +took the heroes of Corneille as models, played the harmless lover, +and paid the tribute of chivalric deference to women. The strained +politeness may have been artificial, and the forms of chivalry very +likely outran the feeling, but they served at least to keep it alive, +while the false platonism and ultra-refined sentiment were simply moral +protests against the coarse vices of the time. The prudery which reached +a satirical climax in "Les Precieuses Ridicules" was a natural reaction +from the sensuality of a Marguerite and a Gabrielle. Mme. de Rambouillet +saw and enjoyed the first performance of this celebrated play, nor does +it appear that she was at all disturbed by the keen satire which was +generally supposed to have been directed toward her salon. Moliere +himself disclaims all intention of attacking the true precieuse; but the +world is not given to fine discrimination, and the true suffers from the +blow aimed at the false. This brilliant comedian, whose manners were +not of the choicest, was more at home in the lax and epicurean world of +Ninon and Mme. de la Sabliere--a world which naturally did not find the +decorum of the precieuses at all to its taste; the witticism of Ninon, +who defined them as the "Jansenists of love," is well known. It is not +unlikely that Moliere shared her dislike of the powerful and fastidious +coterie whose very virtues might easily have furnished salient points +for his scathing wit. + +But whatever affectations may have grown out of the new code of manners, +it had a more lasting result in the fine and stately courtesy which +pervaded the later social life of the century. We owe, too, a profound +gratitude to these women who exacted and were able to command a +consideration which with many shades of variation has been left as a +permanent heritage to their sex. We may smile at some of their follies; +have we not our own which some nineteenth century Moliere may serve up +for the delight and possible misleading of future generations? + +There is a warm human side to this daily intercourse, with its sweet and +gracious courtesies. The women who discuss grave questions and make or +unmake literary reputations in the salon, are capable of rare sacrifices +and friendships that seem quixotic in their devotion. Cousin, who +has studied them so carefully and so sympathetically, has saved from +oblivion many private letters which give us pleasant glimpses of their +everyday life. As we listen to their quiet exchange of confidences, we +catch the smile that plays over the light badinage, or the tear that +lurks in the tender words. + +A little son of Mme. de Rambouillet has the small pox, and his sister +Julie shares the care of him with her mother, when every one else +has fled. At his death, she devotes herself to her friend Mme. de +Longueville, who soon after her marriage is attacked with the same +dreaded malady. Mme. de Sable is afraid of contagion, and refuses to +see Mlle. de Rambouillet, who writes her a characteristic letter. As it +gives us a vivid idea of her esprit as well as of her literary style, I +copy it in full, though it has been made already familiar to the English +reader by George Eliot, in her admirable review of Cousin's "Life of +Mme. De Sable." + +Mlle de Chalais (Dame de compagnie to the Marquise) will please read +this letter to Mme. la Marquise, out of the wind. + +Madame, I cannot begin my treaty with you too early, for I am sure +that between the first proposition made for me to see you, and +the conclusion, you will have so many reflections to make, so many +physicians to consult, and so many fears to overcome, that I shall have +full leisure to air myself. The conditions which I offer are, not to +visit you until I have been three days absent from the Hotel de Conde, +to change all my clothing, to choose a day when it has frozen, not to +approach you within four paces, not to sit down upon more than one seat. +You might also have a great fire in your room, burn juniper in the four +corners, surround yourself with imperial vinegar, rue, and wormwood. +If you can feel safe under these conditions, without my cutting off +my hair, I swear to you to execute them religiously; and if you need +examples to fortify you, I will tell you that the Queen saw M. de +Chaudebonne when he came from Mlle. de Bourbon's room, and that Mme. +d'Aiguillon, who has good taste and is beyond criticism on such points, +has just sent me word that if I did not go to see her, she should come +after me. + +Mme. de Sable retorts in a satirical vein, that her friend is too well +instructed in the needed precautions, to be quite free from the charge +of timidity, adding the hope that since she understands the danger, she +will take better care of herself in the future. + +This calls forth another letter, in which Mlle. de Rambouillet says, +"One never fears to see those whom one loves. I would have given +much, for your sake, if this had not occurred." She closes this spicy +correspondence, however, with a very affectionate letter which calms the +ruffled temper of her sensitive companion. + +Mme. de Sable has another friend, Mlle. d'Attichy, who figures quite +prominently in the social life of a later period, as the Comtesse de +Maure. This lady was just leaving Paris to visit her in the country, +when she learned that Mme. de Sable had written to Mme. de Rambouillet +that she could conceive of no greater happiness than to pass her life +alone with Julie d'Angennes. This touches her sensibilities so keenly +that she changes her plans, and refuses to visit one who could find +her pleasure away from her. Mme. de Sable tries in vain to appease her +exacting friend, who replies to her explanations by a long letter in +which she recalls their tender and inviolable friendship, and closes +with these words: + + Malheurteuse est l'ignorance, + Et plus malheureux le savoir. + +Having thus lost a confidence which alone rendered life supportable to +me, I cannot dream of taking the journey so much talked of; for there +would be no propriety in traveling sixty leagues at this season, in +order to burden you with a person so uninteresting to you, that after +years of a passion without parallel you cannot help thinking that the +greatest pleasure would consist in passing life without her. I return +then into my solitude, to examine the faults which cause me so much +unhappiness, and unless I can correct them, I should have less joy than +confusion in seeing you. I kiss your hands very humbly. + +How this affair was adjusted does not appear, but as they remained +devoted friends through life, unable to live apart, or pass a day +happily without seeing each other, it evidently did not end in a serious +alienation. It suggests, however, a delicacy and an exaltation of +feeling which we are apt to accord only to love, and which go far toward +disproving the verdict of Mongaigne, that "the soul of a woman is not +firm enough for so durable a tie as friendship." + +We like to dwell upon these inner phases of a famous and powerful +coterie, not only because they bring before us so vividly the living, +moving, thinking, loving women who composed it, letting us into their +intimate life with its quiet shadings, its fantastic humors, and its +wayward caprices, but because they lead us to the fountain head of a +new form of literary expression. We have seen that the formal letters of +Balzac were among the early entertainments of the Hotel de Rambouillet, +and that Voiture had a witty or sentimental note for every occasion. +Mlle. de Scudery held a ready pen, and was in the habit of noting down +in her letters to absent friends the conversation, which ran over a +great variety of topics, from the gossip of the moment to the gravest +questions. There was no morning journal with its columns of daily news, +no magazine with its sketches of contemporary life, and these private +letters were passed from one to another to be read and discussed. The +craze for clever letters spread. Conversations literally overflowed upon +paper. A romantic adventure, a bit of scandal, a drawing room incident, +or a personal pique, was a fruitful theme. Everybody aimed to excel in +an art which brought a certain prestige. These letters, most of which +had their brief day, were often gathered into little volumes. Many have +long since disappeared, or found burial in the dust of old libraries +from which they are occasionally exhumed to throw fresh light upon some +forgotten nook and by way of an age whose habits and manners, virtues +and follies, they so faithfully record. A few, charged with the vitality +of genius, retain their freshness and live among the enduring monuments +of the society that gave them birth. The finest outcome of this +prevailing taste was Mme. de Sevigne, who still reigns as the queen +of graceful letter writers. Although her maturity belongs to a later +period, she was familiar with the Rambouillet circle in her youth, and +inherited its best spirit. + +The charm of this literature is its spontaneity. It has no ulterior aim, +but delights in simple expression. These people write because they like +to write. They are original because they sketch from life. There is +something naive and fresh in their vivid pictures. They give us all the +accessories. They tell us how they lived, how they dressed, how they +thought, how they acted. They talk of their plans, their loves, and +their private piques, with the same ingenuous frankness. They condense +for us their worldly philosophy, their sentiments, and their experience. +The style of these letters is sometimes heavy and stilted, the wit is +often strained and far-fetched, but many of them are written with an +easy grace and a lightness of touch as fascinating as inimitable. + +The marriage of Julie d'Angennes, in 1645, deprived the Hotel de +Rambouillet of one of its chief attractions. It was only through the +earnest wish of her family that, after a delay of thirteen years, she +yielded at last to the persevering suit of the Marquis, afterwards the +Duc de Montausier, and became his wife. She was then thirty-eight, +and he three years younger. The famous "Guirlande de Julie," which he +dedicated and presented to her, still exists, as the unique memorial +of his patient and enduring love. This beautiful volume, richly bound, +decorated with a flower exquisitely painted on each of the twenty-nine +leaves and accompanied by a madrigal written by the Marquis himself or +by some of the poets who frequented her house, was a remarkable tribute +to the graces of the woman whose praises were so delicately sung. The +faithful lover, who was a Protestant, gave a crowning proof of his +devotion, in changing his religion. So much adoration could hardly fail +to touch the most capricious and obdurate of hearts. + +We cannot dismiss this woman, whom Cousin regards as the most +accomplished type of the society she adorned, without a word more. +Though her ambition was gratified by the honors that fell upon her +husband, who after holding many high positions was finally entrusted +with the education of the Dauphin; and though her own appointment of +dame d'honneur to the Queen gave her an envied place at court, we trace +with regret the close of her brilliant career. As has been already +indicated, she added to much esprit a character of great sweetness, +and manners facile, gracious, even caressing. With less elevation, less +independence, and less firmness than her mother, she had more of the +sympathetic quality, the frank unreserve, that wins the heart. No one +had so many adorers; no one scattered so many hopeless passions; no one +so gently tempered these into friendships. She knew always how to say +the fitting word, to charm away the clouds of ill humor, to conciliate +opposing interests. But this spirit of complaisance which, however +charming it may be, is never many degrees removed from the spirit of the +courtier, proved to be the misfortune of her later life. Too amiable, +perhaps too diplomatic, to frown openly upon the King's irregularities, +she was accused, whether justly or otherwise, of tacitly favoring his +relations with Mme. De Montespan. The husband of this lady took his +wife's infidelity very much to heart, and, failing to find any redress, +forced himself one day into the presence of Madam de Montausier, and +made a violent scene which so affected her that she fell into a profound +melancholy and an illness from which she never rallied. There is always +an air of mystery thrown about this affair, and it is difficult to +fathom the exact truth; but the results were sufficiently tragical to +the woman who was quoted by her age as a model of virtue and decorum. + +In 1648, the troubles of the Fronde, which divided friends and added +fuel to petty social rivalries, scattered the most noted guests of the +Hotel de Rambouillet. Voiture was dead; Angelique Paulet died two years +later. The young Marquis de Pisani, the only son and the hope of his +family, had fallen with many brave comrades on the field of Nordlingen. +Of the five daughters, three were abbesses of convents. The health +of the Marquise, which had always been delicate, was still further +enfeebled by the successive griefs which darkened her closing years. Her +husband, of whom we know little save that he was sent on various foreign +missions, and "loved his wife always as a lover," died in 1652. She +survived him thirteen years, living to see the death of her youngest +daughter, Angelique, wife of the Comte de Grignan who was afterwards +the son-in-law of Mme. de Sevigne. She witnessed the elevation of her +favorite Julie, but was spared the grief of her death which occurred +five or six years after her own. The aged Marquise, true to her early +tastes, continued to receive her friends in her ruelle, and her salon +had a brief revival when the Duchesse de Montausier returned from the +provinces, after the second Fronde; but its freshness had faded with its +draperies of blue and gold. The brilliant company that made it so famous +was dispersed, and the glory of the Salon Bleu was gone. + +There is something infinitely pathetic in the epitaph this much-loved +and successful woman wrote for herself when she felt that the end was +near: + + Ici git Arthenice, exempte des rigueurs + Don't la rigueur du sort l'a touours poursuivie. + Et si tu veux, passant, compter tous ses malheurs, + Tu n'aura qu'a, compter les moments de sa vie. + +The spirit of unrest is there beneath the calm exterior. It may be some +hidden wound; it may be only the old, old weariness, the inevitable +burden of the race. "Mon Dieu!" wrote Mme. de Maintenon, in the height +of her worldly success, "how sad life is! I pass my days without other +consolation than the thought that death will end it all." + +Mme. de Rambouillet had worked unconsciously toward a very important +end. She found a language crude and inelegant, manners coarse and +licentious, morals dissolute and vicious. Her influence was at its +height in the age of Corneille and Descartes, and she lived almost to +the culmination of the era of Racine and Moliere, of Boileau and +La Bruyere, of Bossuet and Fenelon, the era of simple and purified +language, of refined and stately manners, and of at least outward +respect for morality. To these results she largely contributed. Her +salon was the social and literary power of the first half of the +century. In an age of political espionage, it maintained its position +and its dignity. It sustained Corneille against the persecutions of +Richelieu, and numbered among its habitues the founders of the Academie +Francaise, who continued the critical reforms begun there. + +As a school of politeness, it has left permanent traces. This woman +of fine ideals and exalted standards exacted of others the purity +of character, delicacy of thought, and urbanity of manner, which she +possessed in so eminent a degree herself. Her code was founded upon the +best instincts of humanity, and whatever modifications of form time has +wrought its essential spirit remains unchanged. "Politeness does not +always inspire goodness, equity, complaisance, gratitude," says La +Bruyere, "but it gives at least the appearance of these qualities, and +makes man seem externally what he ought to be internally." + +It was in this salon, too, that the modern art of conversation, which +has played so conspicuous a part in French life, may be said to have +had its birth. Men and women met on a footing of equality, with similar +tastes and similar interests. Different ranks and conditions were +represented, giving a certain cosmopolitan character to a society which +had hitherto been narrow in its scope and limited in its aims. Naturally +conversation assumed a new importance, and was subject to new laws. To +quote again from LaBruyere, who has so profoundly penetrated the secrets +of human nature: "The esprit of conversation consists much less in +displaying itself than in drawing out the wit of others... Men do not +like to admire you, they wish to please; they seek less to be instructed +or even to be entertained, than to be appreciated and applauded, and the +most delicate pleasure is to make that of others." "To please others," +says La Rochefoucauld, "one must speak of the things they love and which +concern them, avoid disputes upon indifferent maters, ask questions +rarely, and never let them think that one is more in the right than +themselves." + +Many among the great writers of the age touch in the same tone upon +the philosophy underlying the various rules of manners and conversation +which were first discussed at the Hotel de Rambouillet, and which have +passed into permanent though unwritten laws--unfortunately a little out +of fashion in the present generation. + +It is difficult to estimate the impulse given to intelligence and +literary taste by this breaking up of old social crystallizations. What +the savant had learned in his closet passed more or less into current +coin. Conversation gave point to thought, clearness to expression, +simplicity to language. Women of rank and recognized ability imposed +the laws of good taste, and their vivid imaginations changed lifeless +abstractions into something concrete and artistic. Men of letters, who +had held an inferior and dependent position, were penetrated with the +spirit of a refined society, while men of the world, in a circle where +wit and literary skill were distinctions, began to aspire to the role +of a bel esprit, to pride themselves upon some intellectual gift and the +power to write without labor and without pedantry, as became their rank. +Many of them lacked seriousness, dealing mainly with delicate fancies +and trivial incidents, but pleasures of the intellect and taste became +the fashion. Burlesques and chansons disputed the palm with madrigals +and sonnets. A neatly turned epigram or a clever letter made a social +success. + +Perhaps it was not a school for genius of the first order. Society +favors graces of form and expression rather than profound and serious +thought. No Homer, nor Aeschylus, nor Milton, nor Dante is the outgrowth +of such a soil. The prophet or seer shines by the light of his own soul. +He deals with problems and emotions that lie deep in the pulsing heart +of humanity, but he does not best interpret his generation. It is the +man living upon the level of his time, and finding his inspiration in +the world of events, who reflects its life, marks its currents, and +registers its changes. Matthew Arnold has aptly said that "the qualities +of genius are less transferable than the qualities of intelligence, less +can be immediately learned and appropriated from their product; they are +less direct and stringent intellectual agencies, though they may be +more beautiful and divine." It was this quality of intelligence that +eminently characterized the literature of the seventeenth century. It +was a mirror of social conditions, or their natural outcome. The spirit +of its social life penetrated its thought, colored its language, and +molded its forms. We trace it in the letters and vers de societe which +were the pastime of the Hotel de Rambouillet and the Samedis of Mlle. de +Scudery, as well as in the romances which reflected their sentiments and +pictured their manners. We trace it in the literary portraits which were +the diversion of the coterie of Mademoiselle, at the Luxembourg, and in +the voluminous memoirs and chronicles which grew out of it. We trace it +also in the "Maxims" and "Thoughts" which were polished and perfected in +the convent salon of Mme. de Sable, and were the direct fruits of a wide +experience and observation of the great world. It would be unfair to say +that anything so complex as the growth of a new literature was wholly +due to any single influence, but the intellectual drift of the time +seems to have found its impulse in the salons. They were the alembics in +which thought was fused and crystallized. They were the schools in which +the French mind cultivated its extraordinary clearness and flexibility. + +As the century advanced, the higher literature was tinged and modified +by the same spirit. Society, with its follies and affectations, inspired +the mocking laughter of Moliere, but its unwritten laws tempered his +language and refined his wit. Its fine urbanity was reflected in the +harmony and delicacy of Racine, as well as in the critical decorum of +Boileau. The artistic sentiment rules in letters, as in social life. It +was not only the thought that counted, but the setting of the thought. +The majestic periods of Bossuet, the tender persuasiveness of Fenelon, +gave even truth a double force. The moment came when this critical +refinement, this devotion to form, passed its limits, and the inevitable +reaction followed. The great literary wave of the seventeenth century +reached its brilliant climax and broke upon the shores of a new era. +But the seeds of thought had been scattered, to spring up in the great +literature of humanity that marked the eighteenth century. + + + + +CHAPTER III. MADEMOISELLE DE SCUDERY AND THE SAMEDIS + +_Salons of the Noblesse--"The Illustrious Sappho"--Her Romances--The +Samedis--Bon Mots of Mme. Cornuel--Estimate of Mlle. de Scudery_ + +There were a few contemporary salons among the noblesse, modeled more or +less after the Hotel de Rambouillet, but none of their leaders had the +happy art of conciliating so many elements. They had a literary flavor, +and patronized men of letters, often doubtless, because it was the +fashion and the name of a well-known litterateur gave them a certain +eclat; but they were not cosmopolitan, and have left no marked traces. +One of the most important of these was the Hotel de Conde, over which +the beautiful Charlotte de Montmorency presided with such dignity and +grace, during the youth of her daughter, the Duchesse de Longueville. +Another was the Hotel de Nevers, where the gifted Marie de Gonzague, +afterward Queen of Poland, and her charming sister, the Princesse +Palatine, were the central attractions of a brilliant and intellectual +society. Richelieu, recognizing the power of the Rambouillet circle, +wished to transfer it to the salon of his niece at the Petit Luxembourg. +We have a glimpse of the young and still worldly Pascal, explaining +here his discoveries in mathematics and his experiments in physics. The +tastes of this courtly company were evidently rather serious, as we +find another celebrity, of less enduring fame, discoursing upon the +immortality of the soul. But the rank, talent, and masterful character +of the Duchesse d'Aiguillon did not suffice to give her salon the +wide influence of its model; it was tainted by her own questionable +character, and always hampered by the suspicion of political intrigues. + +There were smaller coteries, however, which inherited the spirit and +continued the traditions of the Hotel de Rambouillet. Prominent among +these was that of Madeleine de Scudery, who held her Samedis in modest +fashion in the Marais. These famous reunions lacked the prestige and the +fine tone of their model, but they had a definite position, and a wide +though not altogether favorable influence. As the forerunner of Mme. +de La Fayette and Mme. de Sevigne, and one of the most eminent literary +women of the century with which her life ran parallel, Mlle. de Scudery +has a distinct interest for us and it is to her keen observation and +facile pen that we are indebted for the most complete and vivid picture +of the social life of the period. + +The "illustrious Sappho," as she was pleased to be called, certainly did +not possess the beauty popularly accorded to her namesake and prototype. +She was tall and thin, with a long, dark, and not at all regular face; +Mme. Cornuel said that one could see clearly "she was destined by +Providence to blacken paper, as she sweat ink from every pore." But, +if we may credit her admirers, who were numerous, she had fine eyes, +a pleasing expression, and an agreeable address. She evidently did +not overestimate her personal attractions, as will be seen from the +following quatrain, which she wrote upon a portrait made by one of her +friends. + + Nanteuil, en faisant mon image, + A de son art divin signale le pouvoir; + Je hais mes yeux dans mon miroir, + Je les aime dans son ouvrage. + +She had her share, however, of small but harmless vanities, and spoke +of her impoverished family, says Tallemant, "as one might speak of the +overthrow of the Greek empire." Her father belonged to an old and noble +house of Provence, but removed to Normandy, where he married and died, +leaving two children with a heritage of talent and poverty. A trace of +the Provencal spirit always clung to Madeleine, who was born in 1607, +and lived until the first year of the following century. After losing +her mother, who is said to have been a woman of some distinction, she +was carefully educated by an uncle in all the accomplishments of +the age, as well as in the serious studies which were then unusual. +According to her friend Conrart she was a veritable encyclopedia +of knowledge both useful and ornamental. "She had a prodigious +imagination," he writes, "an excellent memory, an exquisite judgment, +a lively temper, and a natural disposition to understand everything +curious which she saw done, and everything laudable which she heard +talked of. She learned the things that concern agriculture, gardening, +housekeeping, cooking, and a life in the country; also the causes and +effects of maladies, the composition of an infinite number of remedies, +perfumes, scented waters and distillations useful or agreeable. She +wished to play the lute, and took some lessons with success." In +addition to all this, she mastered Spanish and Italian, read extensively +and conversed brilliantly. At the death of her uncle and in the +freshness of her youth, she went to Paris with her brother who had some +pretension as a poet and dramatic writer. He even posed as a rival +of Corneille, and was sustained by Richelieu, but time has long since +relegated him to comparative oblivion. His sister, who was a victim of +his selfish tyranny, is credited with much of the prose which appeared +under his name; indeed, her first romances were thus disguised. Her love +for conversation was so absorbing, that he is said to have locked her +in her room, and refused her to her friends until a certain amount of +writing was done. But, in spite of this surveillance, her life was so +largely in the world that it was a mystery when she did her voluminous +work. + +Of winning temper and pleasing address, with this full equipment of +knowledge and imagination, versatility and ambition, she was at an early +period domesticated in the family of Mme. de Rambouillet as the friend +and companion of Julie d'Angennes. Her graces of mind and her amiability +made her a favorite with those who frequented the house, and she was +thus brought into close contact with the best society of her time. She +has painted it carefully and minutely in the "Grand Cyrus," a romantic +allegory in which she transfers the French aristocracy and French +manners of the seventeenth century to an oriental court. The Hotel +de Rambouillet plays an important part as the Hotel Cleomire. When +we consider that the central figures were the Prince de Conde and +his lovely sister the Duchesse de Longueville, also that the most +distinguished men and women of the age saw their own portraits, somewhat +idealized but quite recognizable through the thin disguise of Persians, +Greeks, Armenians, or Egyptians, it is easy to imagine that the ten +volumes of rather exalted sentiment were eagerly sought and read. She +lacked incident and constructive power, but excelled in vivid portraits, +subtle analysis, and fine conversations. She made no attempt at local +color; her plots were strained and unnatural, her style heavy and +involved. But her penetrating intellect was thoroughly tinged with the +romantic spirit, and she had the art of throwing a certain glamour over +everything she touched. Cousin, who has rescued the memory of Mlle. de +Scudery from many unjust aspersions, says that she was the "creator +of the psychological romance." Unquestionably her skill in character +painting set the fashion for the pen portraits which became a mania a +few years later. + +She depicts herself as Sapppho, whose opinions may be supposed to +reflect her own. In these days, when the position of women is discussed +from every possible point of view, it may be interesting to know how it +was regarded by one who represented the thoughtful side of the age in +which their social power was first distinctly asserted. She classes her +critics and enemies under several heads. Among them are the "light and +coquettish women whose only occupation is to adorn their persons +and pass their lives in fetes and amusements--women who think that +scrupulous virtue requires them to know nothing but to be the wife of a +husband, the mother of children, and the mistress of a family; and men +who regard women as upper servants, and forbid their daughters to read +anything but their prayer books." + +"One does not wish women to be coquettes," she writes again, "but +permits them to learn carefully all that fits them for gallantry, +without teaching them anything which can fortify their virtue or occupy +their minds. They devote ten or a dozen years to learning to appear +well, to dress in good style, to dance and sing, for five or six; but +this same person, who requires judgment all her life and must talk +until her last sigh, learns nothing which can make her converse more +agreeably, or act with more wisdom." + +But she does not like a femme savante, and ridicules, under the name +of Damophile, a character which might have been the model for Moliere's +Philaminte. This woman has five or six masters, of whom the least +learned teaches astrology. She poses as a Muse, and is always surrounded +with books, pencils, and mathematical instruments, while she uses large +words in a grave and imperious tone, although she speaks only of little +things. After many long conversations about her, Sappho concludes thus: +"I wish it to be said of a woman that she knows a hundred things of +which she does not boast, that she has a well-informed mind, is familiar +with fine works, speaks well, writes correctly, and knows the world; but +I do not wish it to be said of her that she is a femme savante. The two +characters have no resemblance." She evidently recognized the fact that +when knowledge has penetrated the soul, it does not need to be worn on +the outside, as it shines through the entire personality. + +After some further discussion, to the effect that the wise woman will +conceal superfluous learning and especially avoid pedantry, she defines +the limit to which a woman may safely go in knowledge without losing her +right to be regarded as the "ornament of the world, made to be served +and adored." + +One may know some foreign languages and confess to reading Homer, +Hesiod, and the works of the illustrious Aristee (Chapelain), without +being too learned. One may express an opinion so modestly that, without +offending the propriety of her sex, she may permit it to be seen that +she has wit, knowledge, and judgment. That which I wish principally to +teach women is not to speak too much of that which they know well, never +to speak of that which they do not know at all, and to speak reasonably. + +We note always a half-apologetic tone, a spirit of compromise between +her conscious intelligence and the traditional prejudice which had in +no wise diminished since Martial included, in his picture of a domestic +menage, "a wife not too learned..." She is not willing to lose a woman's +birthright of love and devotion, but is not quite sure how far it might +be affected by her ability to detect a solecism. Hence, she offers +a great deal of subtle flattery to masculine self-love. With curious +naivete she says: + +Whoever should write all that was said by fifteen or twenty women +together would make the worst book in the world, even if some of them +were women of intelligence. But if a man should enter, a single one, +and not even a man of distinction, the same conversation would suddenly +become more spirituelle and more agreeable. The conversation of men +is doubtless less sprightly when there are no women present; but +ordinarily, although it may be more serious, it is still rational, and +they can do without us more easily than we can do without them. + +She attaches great importance to conversation as "the bond of society, +the greatest pleasure of well-bred people, and the best means of +introducing, not only politeness into the world, but a purer morality." +She dwells always upon the necessity of "a spirit of urbanity, which +banishes all bitter railleries, as well as everything that can offend +the taste," also of a certain "esprit de joie." + +We find here the code which ruled the Hotel de Rambouillet, and the very +well-defined character of the precieuse. But it may be noted that Mlle. +de Scudery, who was among the avant-coureurs of the modern movement +for the advancement of women, always preserved the forms of the old +traditions, while violating their spirit. True to her Gallic instincts, +she presented her innovations sugar-coated. She had the fine sense of +fitness which is the conscience of her race, and which gave so +much power to the women who really revolutionized society without +antagonizing it. + +Her conversations, which were full of wise suggestions and showed a +remarkable insight into human character, were afterwards published in +detached form and had a great success. Mme. de Sevigne writes to her +daughter: "Mlle. De Scudery has just sent me two little volumes of +conversations; it is impossible that they should not be good, when they +are not drowned in a great romance." + +When the Hotel de Rambouillet was closed, Mlle. de Scudery tried to +replace its pleasant reunions by receiving her friends on Saturdays. +These informal receptions were frequented by a few men and women of +rank, but the prevailing tone was literary and slightly bourgeois. We +find there, from time to time, Mme. de Sable, the Duc and Duchesse de +Montausier, and others of the old circle who were her lifelong friends. +La Rochefoucauld is there occasionally, also Mme. de. La Fayette, Mme. +de Sevigne, and the young Mme. Scarron whose brilliant future is hardly +yet in her dreams. Among those less known today, but of note in their +age, were the Comtesse de la Suze, a favorite writer of elegies, who +changed her faith and became a Catholic, as she said, that she "might +not meet her husband in this world or the next;" the versatile Mlle. +Cheron who had some celebrity as a poet, musician, and painter; Mlle. +de la Vigne and Mme. Deshoulieres, also poets; Mlle. Descartes, niece +of the great philosopher; and, at rare intervals, the clever Abbess de +Rohan who tempered her piety with a little sage worldliness. One of the +most brilliant lights in this galaxy of talent was Mme. Cornuel, whose +bons mots sparkle from so many pages in the chronicles of the period. +A woman of high bourgeois birth and of the best associations, she had a +swift vision, a penetrating sense, and a clear intellect prompt to seize +the heart of a situation. Mlle. De Scudery said that she could paint +a grand satire in four words. Mme. de Sevigne found her admirable, and +even the grave Pomponne begged his friend not to forget to send him all +her witticisms. Of the agreeable but rather light Comtesse de Fiesque, +she said: "What preserves her beauty is that it is salted in folly." +Of James II of England, she remarked, "The Holy Spirit has eaten up +his understanding." The saying that the eight generals appointed at the +death of Turenne were "the small change for Turenne" has been attributed +to her. It is certainly not to a woman of such keen insight and ready +wit that one can attach any of the affectations which later crept into +the Samedis. + +The poet Sarasin is the Voiture of this salon. Conrart, to whose house +may be traced the first meetings of the little circle of lettered men +which formed the nucleus of the Academie Francaise, is its secretary; +Pellisson, another of the founders and the historian of the same learned +body, is its chronicler. Chapelain is quite at home here, and we +find also numerous minor authors and artists whose names have small +significance today. The Samedis follow closely in the footsteps of the +Hotel de Rambouillet. It is the aim there to speak simply and naturally +upon all subjects grave or gay, to preserve always the spirit of +delicacy and urbanity, and to avoid vulgar intrigues. There is a +superabundance of sentiment, some affectation, and plenty of esprit. + +They converse upon all the topics of the day, from fashion to politics, +from literature and the arts to the last item of gossip. They read their +works, talk about them, criticize them, and vie with one another in +improvising verses. Pellisson takes notes and leaves us a multitude of +madrigals, sonnets, chansons and letters of varied merit. He says there +reigned a sort of epidemic of little poems. "The secret influence began +to fall with the dew. Here one recites four verses; there, one writes +a dozen. All this is done gaily and without effort. No one bites his +nails, or stops laughing and talking. There are challenges, responses, +repetitions, attacks, repartees. The pen passes from hand to hand, and +the hand does not keep pace with the mind. One makes verses for every +lady present." Many of these verses were certainly not of the best +quality, but it would be difficult, in any age, to find a company of +people clever enough to divert themselves by throwing off such poetic +trifles on the spur of the moment. + +In the end, the Samedis came to have something of the character of a +modern literary club, and were held at different houses. The company was +less choice, and the bourgeois coloring more pronounced. These reunions +very clearly illustrated the fact that no society can sustain itself +above the average of its members. They increased in size, but decreased +in quality, with the inevitable result of affectation and pretension. +Intelligence, taste, and politeness were in fashion. Those who did not +possess them put on their semblance, and, affecting an intellectual +tone, fell into the pedantry which is sure to grow out of the effort to +speak above one's altitude. The fine-spun theories of Mlle. de Scudery +also reached a sentimental climax in "Clelie," which did not fail of its +effect. Platonic love and the ton galant were the texts for innumerable +follies which finally reacted upon the Samedis. After a few years, +they lost their influence and were discontinued. But Mlle. de Scudery +retained the position which her brilliant gifts and literary fame had +given her, and was the center of a choice circle of friends until +a short time before her death at the ripe age of ninety-four. Even +Tallemant, writing of the decline of these reunions, says, "Mlle. De +Scudery is more considered than ever." At sixty-four she received the +first Prix D'Eloquence from the Academie Francaise, for an essay on +Glory. This prize was founded by Balzac, and the subject was specified. +Thus the long procession of laureates was led by a woman. + +In spite of her subtle analysis of love, and her exact map of the Empire +of Tenderness, the sentiment of the "Illustrious Sappho" seems to +have been rather ideal. She had numerous adorers, of whom Conrart and +Pellisson were among the most devoted. During the long imprisonment +of the latter for supposed complicity with Fouquet, she was of great +service to him, and the tender friendship ended only with his life, upon +which she wrote a touching eulogy at its close. But she never married. +She feared to lose her liberty. "I know," she writes, "that there are +many estimable men who merit all my esteem and who can retain a part of +my friendship, but as soon as I regard them as husbands, I regard them +as masters, and so apt to become tyrants that I must hate them from +that moment; and I thank the gods for giving me an inclination very much +averse to marriage." + +It was the misfortune of Mlle. de Scudery to outlive her literary +reputation. The interminable romances which had charmed the eloquent +Flechier, the Grand Conde in his cell at Vincennes, the ascetic +d'Andilly at Port Royal, as well as the dreaming maidens who signed over +their fanciful descriptions and impossible adventures, passed their day. +The touch of a merciless criticism stripped them of their already fading +glory. Their subtle analysis and etherealized sentiment were declared +antiquated, and fashion ran after new literary idols. It was Boileau who +gave the severest blow. "This Despreaux," said Segrais, "knows how to do +nothing else but talk of himself and criticize others; why speak ill of +Mlle. de Scudery as he has done?" + +There has been a disposition to credit the founder of the Samedis with +many of the affectations which brought such deserved ridicule upon +their bourgeois imitators, and to trace in her the original of Moliere's +"Madelon." But Cousin has relieved her of such reproach, and does ample +justice to the truth and sincerity of her character, the purity of her +manners, and the fine quality of her intellect. He calls her "a sort +of French sister of Addison." Perhaps her resemblance to one of the +clearest, purest, and simplest of English essayists is not quite +apparent on the surface; but as a moralist and a delineator of manners +she may have done a similar work in her own way. + +Sainte-Beuve, who has left so many vivid and exquisite portraits of +his countrywomen, does not paint Mlle. de Scudery with his usual kindly +touch. He admits her merit, her accomplishments, her versatility, and +the perfect innocence of her life; but he finds her didactic, pedantic, +and tiresome as a writer, and without charm or grace as a woman. +Doubtless one would find it difficult to read her romances today. She +lacks the genius which has no age and belongs to all ages. Her literary +life pertains to the first half of the seventeenth century, when style +had not reached the Attic purity and elegance of a later period. She was +teacher rather than artist; but no one could be farther from a bas bleu, +or more severe upon pedantry or pretension of any sort. She takes the +point of view of her time, and dwells always upon the wisdom of veiling +the knowledge she claims for her sex behind the purely feminine graces. +How far she practiced her own theories, we can know only from the +testimony of her contemporaries. It is not possible to perpetuate so +indefinable a thing as personal charm, but we are told repeatedly that +she had it in an eminent degree. It is certain that no woman without +beauty, fortune, or visible rank, living simply and depending mainly +upon her own talents, could have retained such powerful and fastidious +friends, during a long life, unless she had had some rare attractions. +That she was much loved, much praised, and much sought, we have +sufficient evidence among the writers of her own time. She was +familiarly spoken of as the tenth Muse, and she counted among her +personal friends the greatest men and women of the century. Leibnitz +sought her correspondence. The Abbe de Pure, who was not friendly to the +precieuses and made the first severe attack upon them, thus writes of +her: "One may call Mlle. de Scudery the muse of our age and the prodigy +of her sex. It is not only her goodness and her sweetness, but her +intellect shines with so much modesty, her sentiments are expressed with +so much reserve, she speaks with so much discretion, and all that she +says is so fit and reasonable, that one cannot help both admiring and +loving her. Comparing what one sees of her, and what one owes to her +personally, with what she writes, one prefers, without hesitation, her +conversation to her works. Although she has a wonderful mind, her heart +outweighs it. It is in the heart of this illustrious woman that one +finds true and pure generosity, an immovable constancy, a sincere and +solid friendship." + +The loyalty of her character was conspicuously shown in her brave +devotion to the interests of the Conde family, through all the reverses +of the Fronde. In one of her darkest moments Mme. de Longueville +received the last volume of the "Grand Cyrus," which was dedicated to +her, and immediately sent her own portrait encircled with diamonds, as +the only thing she had left worthy of this friend who, without sharing +ardently her political prejudices, had never deserted her waning +fortunes. The same rare quality was seen in her unwavering friendship +for Fouquet, during his long disgrace and imprisonment. Mme. de Sevigne, +whose satire was so pitiless toward affectation of any sort, writes to +her in terms of exaggerated tenderness. + +"In a hundred thousand words, I could tell you but one truth, which +reduces itself to assuring you, Mademoiselle, that I shall love you and +adore you all my life; it is only this word that can express the idea +I have of your extraordinary merit. I am happy to have some part in the +friendship and esteem of such a person. As constancy is a perfection, +I say to myself that you will not change for me; and I dare to pride +myself that I shall never be sufficiently abandoned of God not to be +always yours... I take to my son your conversations. I wish him to be +charmed with them, after being charmed myself." + +Mlle. de Scudery is especially interesting to us as marking a transition +point in the history of women; as the author of the first romances of +any note written by her sex; as a moral teacher in an age of laxity; +and as a woman who combined high aspirations, fine ideals, and versatile +talents with a pure and unselfish character. She aimed at universal +accomplishments from the distillation of a perfume to the writing of a +novel, from the preparation of a rare dish to fine conversation, +from playing the lute to the dissection of the human heart. In this +versatility she has been likened to Mme. de Genlis, whom she resembled +also in her moral teaching and her factitious sensibility. She was, +however, more genuine, more amiable, and far superior in true elevation +of character. She was full of theories and loved to air them, hence the +people who move across the pages of her novels are often lost in a cloud +of speculation. But she gave a fresh impulse to literature, adding a +fine quality of grace, tenderness, and pure though often exaggerated +sentiment. Mme. de La Fayette, who had more clearness of mind as well as +a finer artistic sense, gave a better form to the novel and pruned it +of superfluous matter. The sentiment which casts so soft and delicate +a coloring over her romances was more subtle and refined. It may be +questioned, however, if she wrote so much that has been incorporated in +the thought of her time. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. LA GRANDE MADEMOISELLE + +_Her Character--Her Heroic Part in the Fronde--Her Exile--Literary +Diversions of her Salon--A Romantic Episode_ + +There are certain women preeminently distinguished by diversity of +gifts, who fail to leave behind them a fame at all commensurate with +their promise. It may be from a lack of unity, resulting from a series +of fragmentary efforts, no one of which is of surpassing excellence; +it may be that the impression of power they give is quite beyond any +practical manifestation of it; or it may be that talents in themselves +remarkable are cast into the shade by some exceptional brilliancy of +position. The success of life is measured by the harmony between its +ideals and its attainments. It is the symmetry of the temple that gives +the final word, not the breadth of its foundations nor the wealth of its +material. + +It was this lack of harmony and fine proportion which marred the +career of a woman who played a very conspicuous part in the social and +political life of her time, and who belongs to my subject only through +a single phase of a stormy and eventful history. No study of the salons +would be complete without that of the Grande Mademoiselle, but it +was not as the leader of a coterie that she held her special claim to +recognition. By the accident of birth she stood apart, subject to many +limitations that modified the character of her salon and narrowed its +scope, though they emphasized its influence. It was only an incident +of her life, but through the quality of its habitues and their unique +diversions it became the source of an important literature. + +Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans, Duchesse de Montpensier, has left a very +distinct record of herself in letters, romances, memoirs and portraits, +written out of an abounding fullness of nature, but with infinite detail +and royal contempt for precision and orthography. She talks naively +of her happy childhood, of her small caprices, of the love of her +grandmother, Marie de Medicis, of her innocent impressions of the people +about her. She dwells with special pleasure upon a grand fete at the +Palais Royal, in which she posed as an incipient queen. She was then +nineteen. "They were three entire days in arranging my costume," she +writes. "My robe was covered with diamonds, and trimmed with rose, +black, and white tufts. I wore all the jewels of the crown and of the +Queen of England, who still had some left. No one could be better or +more magnificently attired than I was that day, and many people said +that my beautiful figure, my imposing mien, my fair complexion, and the +splendor of my blonde hair did not adorn me less than all the riches +which were upon my person." She sat resplendent upon a raised dais, with +the proud consciousness of her right and power to grace a throne. Louis +XIV, than a child, and the Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles II, were +at her feet. The latter was a devoted suitor. "My heart as well as my +eyes regarded the prince de haut en bas," she says. "I had the spirit to +wed an emperor." + +There were negotiations for her marriage with the Emperor of Austria, +and she thought it wise to adapt herself in advance to his tastes. She +had heard that he was religious, and immediately began to play the part +of a devote so seriously, that she was seized with a violent desire to +become a veritable religieuse and enter the convent of the Carmelites. +She could neither eat nor sleep, and it was feared that she would fall +dangerously ill. "I can only say that, during those eight days, the +empire was nothing to me," she writes. But she confesses to a certain +feeling of vanity at her own spirit of self-sacrifice, and the +sensibility which made her weep at the thought of leaving those she +loved. This access of piety was of short duration, however, as her +father quickly put to flight all her exalted visions of a cloister. Her +dreams of an emperor for whom she lost a prospective king were alike +futile. + +"She had beauty, talent, wealth, virtue, and a royal birth," says Mme. +de Motteville. "Her face was not without defects, and her intellect was +not one which always pleases. Her vivacity deprived all her actions of +the gravity necessary to people of her rank, and her mind was too much +carried away by her feelings. As she was fair, had fine eyes, a pleasing +mouth, was of good height, and blonde, she had quite the air of a great +beauty." But it was beauty of a commanding sort, without delicacy, and +dependent largely upon the freshness of youth. The same veracious +writer says that "she spoiled all she went about by the eagerness and +impatience of her temper. She was always too hasty and pushed things too +far." What she may have lacked in grace and charm, she made up by the +splendors of rank and position. + +A princess by birth, closely related to three kings, and glowing with +all the fiery instincts of her race, the Grand Mademoiselle curiously +blended the courage of an Amazon with the weakness of a passionate and +capricious woman. As she was born in 1627, the most brilliant days of +her youth were passed amid the excitements of the Fronde. She casts a +romantic light upon these trivial wars, which were ended at last by her +prompt decision and masculine force. We see her at twenty-five, riding +victoriously into the city of Orleans at the head of her troops and, +later, ordering the cannon at the Bastile turned against the royal +forces, and opening the gates of Paris to the exhausted army of Conde. +This adventure gives us the key-note to her haughty and imperious +character. She would have posed well for the heroine of a great drama; +indeed, she posed all her life in real dramas. + +At this time she had hopes of marrying the Prince de Conde, whom she +regarded as a hero worthy of her. His wife, an amiable woman who was +sent to a convent after her marriage to learn to read and write, was +dangerously ill, and her illustrious husband did not scruple to make +tacit arrangements to supply her place. Unfortunately for these plans, +and fortunately perhaps for a certain interesting phase of literature, +she recovered. Soon afterwards, Mademoiselle found the reward of her +heroic adventures in a sudden exile to her estates at Saint Fargeau. The +country life, so foreign to her tastes, pressed upon her very heavily +at first, the more so as she was deserted by most of her friends. +"I received more compliments than visits," she writes. "I had made +everybody ill. All those who did not dare send me word that they feared +to embroil themselves with the court pretended that some malady or +accident had befallen them." By degrees, however, she adapted herself to +her situation, and in her loneliness and disappointment betook herself +to pursuits which offered a strong contrast to the dazzling succession +of magnificent fetes and military episodes which had given variety and +excitement to her life at the Tuileries. When she grew tired of her +parrots, her dogs, her horses, her comedians and her violin, she found +solace in literature, beginning the "Memoirs," which were finished +thirty years later, and writing romances, after the manner of Mlle. de +Scudery. The drift of the first one, "Les Nouvelles Francaises et les +Divertissements de la Princesse Aurelie," is suggested by its title. It +was woven from the little stories or adventures which were told to +amuse their solitude by the small coterie of women who had followed the +clouded fortunes of Mademoiselle. A romance of more pretension was the +"Princesse de Paphlagonie," in which the writer pictures her own little +court, and introduces many of its members under fictitious names. +These romances have small interest for the world today, but the exalted +position of their author and their personal character made them much +talked of in their time. + +It was in quite another fashion, however, that the Grande Mademoiselle +made her most important contribution to literature. One day in 1657, +while still in the country, she proposed to her friends to make pen +portraits of themselves, and set the fashion by writing her own, with a +detailed description of her physical, mental, and moral qualities. This +was followed by carefully drawn pictures of others, among whom were +Louis XIV, Monsieur, and the Grand Conde. All were bound in honor to +give the lights and shadows with the same fidelity, though it would be +hardly wise to call them to too strict an account on this point. As may +be readily imagined, the result was something piquant and original. That +the amusement was a popular one goes without saying. People like to talk +of themselves, not only because the subject is interesting, but because +it gives them an opportunity of setting in relief their virtues and +tempering their foibles. They like also to know what others think of +them--at least, what others say of them. It is too much to expect of +human nature, least of all, of French human nature, that an agreeable +modicum of subtle flattery should not be added under such conditions. + +When Mademoiselle opened her salon in the Luxembourg, on her return from +exile, these portraits formed one of its most marked features. The salon +was limited mainly to the nobility, with the addition of a few men +of letters. Among those who frequented it on intimate terms were the +Marquise de Sable, the Comtesse de Maure, the beautiful and pure-hearted +Mme. de Hautefort, the dame d'honneur of Anne of Austria, so hopelessly +adored by Louis XIII, and Mme. de Choisy, the witty wife of the +chancellor of the Duc d'Orleans. Its most brilliant lights were Mme. de +Sevigne, Mme. de La Fayette, and La Rochefoucauld. It was here that Mme. +de La Fayette made the vivid portrait of her friend Mme. de Sevigne. "It +flatters me," said the latter long afterwards, "but those who loved me +sixteen years ago may have thought it true." The beautiful Comtesse +de Bregy, who was called one of the muses of the time, portrayed the +Princess Henrietta and the irrepressible Queen Christine of Sweden. +Mme. de Chatillon, known later as the Duchesse de Mecklenbourg, who was +mingled with all the intrigues of this period, traces a very agreeable +sketch of herself, which may serve as a specimen of this interesting +diversion. After minutely describing her person, which she evidently +regards with much complacence, she continues: + +"I have a temper naturally cheerful and a little given to raillery; but +I correct this inclination, for fear of displeasing. I have much esprit, +and enter agreeably into conversation. I have a pleasant voice and a +modest air. I am very sincere and do not fail my friends. I have not +a trifling mind, nor do I cherish a thousand small malices against my +neighbor. I love glory and fine actions. I have heart and ambition. I +am very sensitive to good and ill, but I never avenge myself for the +ill that has been done me, although I might have the inclination; I am +restrained by self-love. I have a sweet disposition, take pleasure in +serving my friends, and fear nothing so much as the petty drawing-room +quarrels which usually grow out of little nothings. I find my person +and my temper constructed something after this fashion; and I am so +satisfied with both, that I envy no one. I leave to my friends or to my +enemies the care of seeking my faults." + +It was under this stimulating influence that La Rochefoucauld made the +well-known pen-portrait of himself. "I will lack neither boldness +to speak as freely as I can of my good qualities," he writes, "nor +sincerity to avow frankly that I have faults." After describing his +person, temper, abilities, passions, and tastes, he adds with curious +candor: "I am but little given to pity, and do not wish to be so at all. +Nevertheless there is nothing I would not do for an afflicted person; +and I sincerely believe one should do all one can to show sympathy for +misfortune, as miserable people are so foolish that this does them the +greatest good in the world; but I also hold that we should be content +with expressing sympathy, and carefully avoid having any. It is a +passion that is wholly worthless in a well-regulated mind, that only +serves to weaken the heart, and should be left to people, who, never +doing anything from reason, have need of passion to stimulate their +actions. I love my friends; and I love them to such an extent that I +would not for a moment weigh my interest against theirs. I condescend +to them, I patiently endure their bad temper. But I do not make much of +their caresses, and I do not feel great uneasiness at their absence." + +It would be interesting to quote in full this sample of the close and +not always flattering self-analysis so much in fashion, but its length +forbids. Its revelation of the hidden springs of character is at least +unique. + +The poet Segrais, who was attached to Mademoiselle's household, +collected these graphic pictures for private circulation, but they were +so much in demand that they were soon printed for the public under +the title of "Divers Portraits." They served the double purpose of +furnishing to the world faithful delineations of many more or less +distinguished people and of setting a literary fashion. The taste for +pen-portraits, which originated in the romances of Mlle. de Scudery, +and received a fresh impulse from this novel and personal application, +spread rapidly among all classes. It was taken up by men of letters +and men of the world, the nobility, and the bourgeoisie. There were +portraits of every grade of excellence and every variety of people, +until they culminated, some years later in "Les Caracteres" of La +Bruyere, who dropped personalities and gave them the form of permanent +types. It is a literature peculiarly adapted to the flexibility and fine +perception of the French mind, and one in which it has been preeminent, +from the analytic but diffuse Mlle. de Scudery, and the clear, terse, +spirited Cardinal de Retz, to the fine, penetrating, and exquisitely +finished Sainte-Beuve, the prince of modern critics and literary +artists. It was this skill in vivid delineation that gave such point +and piquancy to the memoirs of the period, which are little more than +a series of brilliant and vigorous sketches of people outlined upon a +shifting background of events. In this rapid characterization the French +have no rivals. It is the charm of their fiction as well as of their +memoirs. Balzac, Victor Hugo, and Daudet, are the natural successors of +La Bruyere and Saint-Simon. + +The marriage of Louis XIV shattered one of the most brilliant illusions +of the Grande Mademoiselle, and it was about this time that she wrote +a characteristic letter to Mme. de Motteville, picturing an Arcadia in +some beautiful forest, where people are free to do as they like. The +most ardent apostle of socialism could hardly dream of an existence more +democratic or more Utopian. These favored men and women lead a simple, +pastoral life. They take care of the house and the garden, milk the +cows, make cheese and cakes, and tend sheep on pleasant days. But this +rustic community must have its civilized amusements. They visit, drive, +ride on horseback, paint, design, play on the lute or clavecin, and have +all the new books sent to them. After reading the lives of heroes and +philosophers, the princess is convinced that no one is perfectly happy, +and that Christianity is desirable, as it gives hope for the future. +Her platonic and Christian republic is composed of "amiable and perfect +people," but it is quite free from the entanglements of love and the +"vulgar institution of marriage." Mme. de Motteville replies very +gracefully, accepting many of these ideas, but as it is difficult to +repress love altogether, she thinks "one will be obliged to permit that +error which an old custom has rendered legitimate, and which is called +marriage." This curious correspondence takes its color from the Spanish +pastorals which tinged the romantic literature of the time as well as +its social life. The long letters, carefully written on large and heavy +sheets yellow with age, have a peculiarly old-time flavor, and throw +a vivid light upon the woman who could play the role of a heroine of +Corneille or of a sentimental shepherdess, as the caprice seized her. + +A tragical bit of romance colored the mature life of the Grande +Mademoiselle. She had always professed a great aversion to love, +regarding it as "unworthy of a well-ordered soul." She even went so far +as to say that it was better to marry from reason or any other thing +imaginable, dislike included, than from passion that was, in any case, +short-lived. But this princess of intrepid spirit, versatile gifts, +ideal fancies, and platonic theories, who had aimed at an emperor and +missed a throne; this amazon, with her penchant for glory and contempt +for love, forgot all her sage precepts, and at forty-two fell a victim +to a violent passion for the Comte de Lauzun. She has traced its course +to the finest shades of sentiment. Her pride, her infatuation, her +scruples, her new-born humility--we are made familiar with them +all, even to the finesse of her respectful adorer, and the reluctant +confession of love which his discreet silence wrings from her at last.. +Her royal cousin, after much persuasion, consented to the unequal union. +The impression this affair made upon the world is vividly shown in a +letter written by Mme. de Sevigne to her daughter: + +I am going to tell you a thing the most astonishing, the most +surprising, the most marvelous, the most miraculous, the most +triumphant, the most astounding, the most unheard of, the most singular, +the most extraordinary, the most incredible, the most unexpected, the +grandest, the smallest, the rarest, the most common, the most dazzling, +the most secret even until today, the most brilliant, the most worthy of +envy.... a thing in fine which is to be done Sunday, when those who see +it will believe themselves dazed; a thing which is to be done Sunday +and which will not perhaps have been done Monday... M. de Lauzun marries +Sunday, at the Louvre--guess whom?... He marries Sunday at the Louvre, +with the permission of the King, Mademoiselle, Mademoiselle de, +Mademoiselle; guess the name; he marries Mademoiselle, MA FOI, PAR MA +FOI, MA FOI JUREE, Mademoiselle, la grande Mademoiselle, Mademoiselle, +daughter of the late Monsieur, Mademoiselle, grand-daughter of Henry IV, +Mademoiselle d'Eu, Mademoiselle de Dombes, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, +Mademoiselle d'Orleans, Mademoiselle, cousin of the king, Mademoiselle, +destined to the throne, Mademoiselle, the only parti in France worthy of +Monsieur. VOILA a fine subject for conversation. If you cry out, if you +are beside yourself, if you say that we have deceived you, that it is +false, that one trifles with you, that it is a fine bit of raillery, +that it is very stupid to imagine, if, in fine, you abuse us, we shall +find that you are right; we have done as much ourselves. + +In spite of the prudent warnings of her friends, the happy princess +could not forego the eclat of a grand wedding, and before the hasty +arrangements were concluded, the permission was withdrawn. Her tears, +her entreaties, her cries, her rage, and her despair, were of no avail. +Louis XIV took her in his arms, and mingled his tears with hers, +even reproaching her for the two or three days of delay; but he was +inexorable. Ten years of loyal devotion to her lover, shortly afterward +imprisoned at Pignerol, and of untiring efforts for his release which +was at last secured at the cost of half her vast estates, ended in a +brief reunion. A secret marriage, a swift discovery that her idol was +of very common clay, abuse so violent that she was obliged to forbid +him forever her presence, and the disenchantment was complete. The sad +remnant of her existence was devoted to literature and to conversation; +the latter she regarded as "the greatest pleasure in life, and almost +the only one." When she died, the Count de Lauzun wore the deepest +mourning, had portraits of her everywhere, and adopted permanently the +subdued colors that would fitly express the inconsolable nature of his +grief. + +Without tact or fine discrimination, the Grande Mademoiselle was a woman +of generous though undisciplined impulses, loyal disposition, and pure +character; but her egotism was colossal. Under different conditions, +one might readily imagine her a second Joan of Arc, or a heroine of the +Revolution. She says of herself: "I know not what it is to be a heroine; +I am of a birth to do nothing that is not grand or elevated. One may +call that what one likes. As for myself, I call it to follow my own +inclination and to go my own way. I am not born to take that of others." +She lacked the measure, the form, the delicacy of the typical precieuse; +but her quick, restless intellect and ardent imagination were swift +to catch the spirit of the Hotel de Rambouillet, and to apply it in an +original fashion. Though many subjects were interdicted in her salon, +and many people were excluded, it gives us interesting glimpses into +the life of the literary noblesse, and furnishes a complete gallery +of pen-portraits of more or less noted men and women. With all the +brilliant possibilities of her life, it was through the diversion of her +idle hours that this princess, author, amazon, prospective queen, and +disappointed woman has left the most permanent trace upon the world. + + + + +CHAPTER V. A LITERARY SALON AT PORT ROYAL + +_Mme. de Sable--Her Worldly Life--Her Retreat--Her Friends--Pascal--The +Maxims of La Rochefoucauld--Last Days of the Marquise_ + +The transition from the restless character and stormy experiences of the +Grande Mademoiselle, to the gentler nature and the convent salon of +her friend and literary confidante, Mme. de Sable, is a pleasant one. +Perhaps no one better represents the true precieuse of the seventeenth +century, the happy blending of social savoir-faire with an amiable +temper and a cultivated intellect. Without the genius of Mme. de Sevigne +or Mme. de La Fayette, without the force or the rare attractions of +Mme. de Longueville, without the well-poised character and catholic +sympathies of Mme. de Rambouillet, she played an important part in the +life of her time, through her fine insight and her consummate tact in +bringing together the choicest spirits, and turning their thoughts into +channels that were fresh and unworn. Born in 1599, Madeleine de Souvre +passed her childhood in Touraine, of which province her father was +governor. In the brilliancy of her youth, we find her in Paris among the +early favorites of the Hotel de Rambouillet, and on terms of lifelong +intimacy with its hostess and her daughter Julie. Beautiful, versatile, +generous, but fastidious and exacting in her friendships, with a dash +of coquetry--inevitable when a woman is fascinating and French--she +repeated the oft-played role of a mariage de convenance at sixteen, a +few brilliant years of social triumphs marred by domestic neglect +and suffering, a period of enforced seclusion after the death of her +unworthy husband, a brief return to the world, and an old age of mild +and comfortable devotion. + +"The Marquise de Sable," writes Mme. de Motteville, "was one of those +whose beauty made the most sensation when the Queen (Anne of Austria) +came into France. But if she was amiable, she desired still more to +appear so. Her self-love rendered her a little too sensible to that +which men professed for her. There was still in France some remnant of +the politeness which Catherine de Medicis had brought from Italy, and +Mme. de Sable found so much delicacy in the new dramas, as well as +in other works, in prose and verse, which came from Madrid, that she +conceived a high idea of the gallantry which the Spaniards had learned +from the Moors. She was persuaded that men may without wrong have tender +sentiments for women; that the desire of pleasing them leads men to the +greatest and finest actions, arouses their spirit, and inspires them +with liberality and all sorts of virtues; but that, on the other side, +women, who are the ornaments of the world, and made to be served and +adored, ought to permit only respectful attentions. This lady, having +sustained her views with much talent and great beauty, gave them +authority in her time." + +The same writer says that she has "much light and sincerity," with +"penetration enough to unfold all the secrets of one's heart." + +Mlle. de Scudery introduces her in the "Grand Cyrus," as Parthenie, "a +tall and graceful woman, with fine eyes, the most beautiful throat in +the world, a lovely complexion, blonde hair, and a pleasant mouth, +with a charming air, and a fine and eloquent smile, which expresses the +sweetness or the bitterness of her soul." She dwells upon her surprising +and changeful beauty, upon the charm of her conversation, the variety +of her knowledge, the delicacy of her tact, and the generosity of her +tender and passionate heart. One may suspect this portrait of being +idealized, but it seems to have been in the main correct. + +Of her husband we know very little, excepting that he belonged to +the family of Montmorency, passed from violent love to heart-breaking +indifference, and died about 1640, leaving her with four children and +shattered fortunes. To recruit her failing health, and to hide her +chagrin and sorrow at seeing herself supplanted by unworthy rivals, she +had lived for some time in the country, where she had leisure for the +reading and reflection which fitted her for her later life. But after +the death of her husband she was obliged to sell her estates, and we +find her established in the Place Royale with her devoted friend, +the Comtesse de Maure, and continuing the traditions of the Hotel de +Rambouillet. Her tastes had been formed in this circle, and she had also +been under the instruction of the Chevalier de Mere, a litterateur and +courtier who had great vogue, was something of an oracle, and molded the +character and manners of divers women of this period, among others the +future Mme. de Maintenon. His confidence in his own power of bringing +talent out of mediocrity was certainly refreshing. Among his pupils was +the Duchesse de Lesdiguieres, who said to him one day, "I wish to have +esprit."--"Eh bien, Madame," replied the complaisant chevalier, "you +shall have it." + +How much Mme. de Sable may have been indebted to this modest bel esprit +we do not know, but her finished manner, fine taste, exquisite tact, +cultivated intellect, and great experience of the world made her an +authority in social matters. To be received in her salon was to be +received everywhere. Cardinal Mazarin watched her influence with a +jealous eye. "Mme. de Longueville is very intimate with the Marquise de +Sable," he writes in his private note book. "She is visited constantly +by D'Andilly, the Princesse de Guemene, d'Enghien and his sister, +Nemours, and many others. They speak freely of all the world. It is +necessary to have some one who will advise us of all that passes there." + +But the death of her favorite son--a young man distinguished for graces +of person, mind, heart, and character, who lost his life in one of the +battles of his friend and comrade, the Prince de Conde--together +with the loss of her fortune and the fading of her beauty, turned the +thoughts of the Marquise to spiritual things. We find many traces of the +state of mind which led her first into a mild form of devotion, serious +but not too ascetic, and later into pronounced Jansenism. In a note to +a friend who had neglected her, she dwells upon "the misery and +nothingness of the world," recalls the strength of their long +friendship, the depth of her own affection, and tries to account for the +disloyalty to herself, by the inherent weakness and emptiness of human +nature, which renders it impossible for even the most perfect to do +anything that is not defective. All this is very charitable, to say the +least, as well as a little abstract. Time has given a strange humility +and forgivingness to the woman who broke with her dearest friend, the +unfortunate Duc de Montmorency, because he presumed to lift his eyes +to the Queen, saying that she "could not receive pleasantly the regards +which she had to share with the greatest princess in the world." + +The fashion of the period furnished a peaceful and dignified refuge for +women, when their beauty waned and the "terrible forties" ended their +illusions. To go into brief retreat for penitence and prayer was at all +times a graceful thing to do, besides making for safety. It was only a +step further to retire altogether from the scenes of pleasure which +had begun to pall. The convent offered a haven of repose to the bruised +heart, a fresh aim for drooping energies, a needed outlet for devouring +emotions, and a comfortable sense of security, not only for this world, +but for the next. It was the next world which was beginning to trouble +Mme. de Sable. She had great fear of death, and after many penitential +retreats to Port Royal, she finally obtained permission to build a suite +of apartments within its precincts, and retired there about 1655 to +prepare for that unpleasant event which she put off as long as possible +by the most assiduous care of her health. "If she was not devoted, she +had the idea of becoming so," said Mademoiselle. But her devotion was +in quite a mundane fashion. Her pleasant rooms were separate and +independent, thus enabling her to give herself not only to the care of +her health and her soul, but to a select society, to literature, and to +conversation. She never practiced the severe asceticism of her friend, +Mme. de Longueville. With a great deal of abstract piety, the iron +girdle and the hair shirt were not included. She did not even forego +her delicate and fastidious tastes. Her elegant dinners and her dainty +comfitures were as famous as ever. "Will the anger of the Marquise go so +far, in your opinion, as to refuse me her recipe for salad?" writes Mme. +de Choisy at the close of a letter to the Comtesse de Maure, in which +she has ridiculed her friend's Jansenist tendencies; "If so, it will be +a great inhumanity, for which she will be punished in this world and the +other." She had great skill in delicate cooking, and was in the habit of +sending cakes, jellies, and other dainties, prepared by herself, to her +intimate friends. La Rochefoucauld says, "If I could hope for two dishes +of those preserves, which I did not deserve to eat before, I should be +indebted to you all my life." Mme. de Longueville, who is about to +visit her, begs her not to give a feast as she has "scruples about such +indulgence." + +This spice of worldliness very much tempered the austerity of her +retreat, and lent an added luster to its intellectual attractions. But +the Marquise had many conflicts between her luxurious tastes and her +desire to be devout. Her dainty and epicurean habits, her extraordinary +anxiety about her health, and her capricious humors were the subject of +much light badinage among her friends. The Grande Mademoiselle sketches +these traits with a satiric touch in the "Princesse de Paphlagonie," +where she introduces her with the Comtesse de Maure. "There are no hours +when they do not confer together upon the means of preventing themselves +from dying, and upon the art of rendering themselves immortal," she +writes. "Their conferences are not like those of other people; the fear +of breathing an air too cold or too hot, the apprehension that the wind +may be too dry or too damp, a fancy that the weather is not as moderate +as they judge necessary for the preservation of their health--these are +sufficient reasons for writing from one room to another...." If one could +find this correspondence, one might derive great advantages in every +way; for they were princesses who had nothing mortal, except the +knowledge of being so... Of Mme. de Sable she adds: "The Princess +Parthenie had a taste as dainty as her mind; nothing equaled the +magnificence of her entertainments; all the viands were exquisite, and +her elegance was beyond anything that one could imagine." The fastidious +Marquise suffered, with all the world, from the defects of her +qualities. Her extreme delicacy and sensibility appear under many forms +and verge often upon weakness; but it is an amiable weakness that does +not detract greatly from her fascination. She was not cast in a heroic +mold, and her faults are those which the world is pleased to call +essentially feminine. + +The records of her life were preserved by Conrart, also by her friend +and physician, Valant. They give us a clear picture of her character, +with its graces and its foibles, as well as of her pleasant intercourse +and correspondence with many noted men and women. They give us, +too, interesting glimpses of her salon. We find there the celebrated +Jansenists Nicole and Arnauld, the eminent lawyer Domat, Esprit, +sometimes Pascal, with his sister, Mme. Perier; the Prince and Princesse +de Conti, the Grand Conde, La Rochefoucauld, the penitent Mme. de +Longueville, Mme. de La Fayette, and many others among the cultivated +noblesse, who are attracted by its tone of bel esprit and graceful, +but by no means severe, devotion. The Duc d'Orleans and the lovely but +unfortunate Madame were intimate and frequent visitors. + +In this little world, in which religion, literature, and fashion are +curiously blended, they talk of theology, morals, physics, Cartesianism, +friendship, and love. The youth and gaiety of the Hotel de Rambouillet +have given place to more serious thoughts and graver topics. The current +which had its source there is divided. At the Samedis, in the Marais, +they are amusing themselves about the same time with letters and Vers de +Societe. At the Luxembourg, a more exclusive coterie is exercising its +mature talent in sketching portraits. These salons touch at many points, +but each has a channel of its own. The reflective nature of Mme. de +Sable turns to more serious and elevated subjects, and her friends take +the same tone. They make scientific experiments, discuss Calvinism, read +the ancient moralists, and indulge in dissertations upon a great variety +of topics. Mme. de Bregy, poet, dame d'honneur and femme d'esprit, +who amused the little court of Mademoiselle with so many discreetly +flattering pen-portraits, has left two badly written and curiously +spelled notes upon the merits of Socrates and Epictetus, which throw a +ray of light upon the tastes of this aristocratic and rather speculative +circle. Mme. de Sable writes an essay upon the education of children, +which is very much talked about, also a characteristic paper upon +friendship. The latter is little more than a series of detached +sentences, but it indicates the drift of her thought, and might have +served as an antidote to the selfish philosophy of La Rochefoucauld. It +calls out an appreciative letter from d'Andilly, who, in his anchorite's +cell, continues to follow the sayings and doings of his friends in the +little salon at Port Royal. + +"Friendship," she writes, "is a kind of virtue which can only be founded +upon the esteem of people whom one loves--that is to say, upon qualities +of the soul, such as fidelity, generosity, discretion, and upon fine +qualities of mind." + +After insisting that it must be reciprocal, disinterested, and +based upon virtue, she continues: "One ought not to give the name of +friendship to natural inclinations because they do not depend upon +our will or our choice; and, though they render our friendships more +agreeable, they should not be the foundation of them. The union which +is founded upon the same pleasures and the same occupations does not +deserve the name of friendship because it usually comes from a certain +egotism which causes us to love that which is similar to ourselves, +however imperfect we may be." She dwells also upon the mutual offices +and permanent nature of true friendship, adding, "He who loves his +friend more than reason and justice, will on some other occasion love +his own pleasure and profit more than his friend." + +The Abbe Esprit, Jansenist and academician, wrote an essay upon "Des +Amities en Apparence les Plus Saints des Hommes avec les Femmes," which +was doubtless suggested by the conversations in this salon, where the +subject was freely discussed. The days of chivalry were not so far +distant, and the subtle blending of exalted sentiment with thoughtful +companionship, which revived their spirit in a new form, was too +marked a feature of the time to be overlooked. These friendships, half +intellectual, half poetic, and quite platonic, were mostly formed in +mature life, on a basis of mental sympathy. "There is a taste in pure +friendship which those who are born mediocre do not reach," said La +Gruyere. Mme. de Lambert speaks of it as "the product of a perfect +social culture, and, of all affections, that which has most charm." + +The well-known friendship of Mme. de La Fayette and La Rochefoucauld, +which illustrates the mutual influence of a critical man of intellect +and a deep-hearted, thoughtful woman who has passed the age of romance, +began in this salon. Its nature was foreshadowed in the tribute La +Rochefoucauld paid to women in his portrait of himself. "Where their +intellect is cultivated," he writes, "I prefer their society to that +of men. One finds there a gentleness one does not meet with among +ourselves; and it seems to me, beyond this, that they express themselves +with more neatness, and give a more agreeable turn to the things they +talk about." + +Mme. de Sable was herself, in less exclusive fashion, the intimate +friend and adviser of Esprit, d'Andilly, and La Rochefoucauld. The +letters of these men show clearly their warm regard as well as the value +they attached to her opinions. "Indeed," wrote Voiture to her many years +before, "those who decry you on the side of tenderness must confess that +if you are not the most loving person in the world, you are at least the +most obliging. True friendship knows no more sweetness than there is in +your words." Her character, so delicately shaded and so averse to all +violent passions, seems to have been peculiarly fitted for this calm and +enduring sentiment which cast a soft radiance, as of Indian summer, over +her closing years. + +At a later period, the sacred name of friendship was unfortunately used +to veil relations that had lost all the purity and delicacy of their +primitive character. This fact has sometimes been rather illogically +cited, as an argument not only against the moral influence of the salons +but against the intellectual development of women. There is neither +excuse nor palliation to be offered for the Italian manners and the +recognized system of amis intimes, which disgraced the French society +the next century. But, while it is greatly to be deplored that the moral +sense has not always kept pace with the cultivation of the intellect, +there is no reason for believing that license of manners is in any +degree the result of it. There is striking evidence to the contrary, in +the incredible ignorance and laxity that found its reaction in the early +salons; also in the dissolute lives of many distinguished women of rank +who had no pretension to wit or education. The fluctuation of morals, +which has always existed, must be traced to quite other causes. Virtue +has not invariably accompanied intelligence, but it has been still less +the companion of ignorance. + +It was Mme. de Sable who set the fashion of condensing the thoughts and +experiences of life into maxims and epigrams. This was her specific +gift to literature; but her influence was felt through what she inspired +others to do rather than through what she did herself. It was her good +fortune to be brought into contact with the genius of a Pascal and a +La Rochefoucauld,--men who reared immortal works upon the pastime of +an idle hour. One or two of her own maxims will suffice to indicate her +style as well as to show the estimate she placed upon form and measure +in the conduct of life: + +A bad manner spoils everything, even justice and reason. The HOW +constitutes the best part of things, and the air which one gives them +gilds, modifies, and softens the most disagreeable. + +There is a certain command in the manner of speaking and acting, which +makes itself felt everywhere, and which gains, in advance, consideration +and respect. + +We find here the spirit that underlies French manners, in which form +counts for so much. + +There is another, which suggests the delicate flavor of sentiment then +in vogue: + +Wherever it is, love is always the master. It seems truly that it is to +the soul of the one who loves, what the soul is to the body it animates. + +Among the eminent men who lent so much brilliancy to this salon was +the great jurist Domat. He adds his contribution and falls into the +moralizing vein: + +A little fine weather, a good word, a praise, a caress, draws me from +a profound sadness from which I could not draw myself by any effort +of meditation. What a machine is my soul, what an abyss of misery and +weakness! + +Here is one by the Abbe d'Ailly, which foreshadows the thought of the +next century: + +Too great submission to books, and to the opinions of the ancients, +as to the eternal truths revealed of God, spoils the head and makes +pedants. + +The finest and most vigorous of these choice spirits was Pascal, who +frequented more or less the salon of Mme. de Sable previous to his final +retirement to the gloom and austerity of the cloister. His delicate +platonism and refined spirituality go far towards offsetting the cold +cynicism of La Rochefoucauld. Each gives us a different phase of life +as reflected in a clear and luminous intelligence. The one led to Port +Royal, the other turned an electric light upon the selfish corruption of +courts. Many of the pensees of Pascal were preserved among the records +of this salon, and Cousin finds reason for believing that they were +first suggested and discussed here; he even thinks it possible, if +not probable, that the "Discours sur les Passions de L'amour," which +pertains to his mundane life, and presents the grave and ascetic recluse +in a new light, had a like origin. + +But the presiding genius was La Rochefoucauld. He complains that the +mode of relaxation is fatiguing, and that the mania for sentences +troubles his repose. The subjects were suggested for conversation, and +the thoughts were condensed and reduced to writing at leisure. "Here are +all the maxims I have," he writes to Mme. de Sable; "but as one gives +nothing for nothing, I demand a potage aux carottes, un ragout de +mouton, etc." + +"When La Rochefoucauld had composed his sentences," says Cousin, "he +talked them over before or after dinner, or he sent them at the end of +a letter. They were discussed, examined, and observations were made, +by which he profited. One could lessen their faults, but one could lend +them no beauty. There was not a delicate and rare turn, a fine and keen +touch, which did not come from him." + +After availing himself of the general judgment in this way, he took a +novel method of forestalling crtiticism before committing himself +to publication. Mme. de Sable sent a collection of the maxims to her +friends, asking for a written opinion. One is tempted to make long +extracts from their replies. The men usually indorse the worldly +sentiments, the women rarely. The Princesse de Guemene, who, in the +decline of her beauty, was growing devout, and also had apartments for +penitential retreat at Port Royal, responds: "I was just going to write +to beg you to send me your carriage as soon as you had dined. I have yet +seen only the first maxims, as I had a headache yesterday; but those I +have read appear to me to be founded more upon the disposition of +the author than upon the truth, for he believes neither in generosity +without interest, nor in pity; that is, he judges every one by himself. +For the greater number of people, he is right; but surely there are +those who desire only to do good." The Countesse de Maure, who does not +believe in the absolute depravity of human nature, and is inclined to an +elevated Christian philosophy quite opposed to Jansenism, writes with +so much severity that she begs her friend not to show her letter to the +author. Mme. de Hautefort expresses her disapproval of a theory which +drives honor and goodness out of the world. After many clever and +well-turned criticisms, she says: "But the maxim which is quite new to +me, and which I admire, is that idleness, languid as it is, destroys all +the passions. It is true, and he had searched his heart well to find a +sentiment so hidden, but so just... I think one ought, at present, to +esteem idleness as the only virtue in the world, since it is that which +uproots all the vices. As I have always had much respect for it, I +am glad it has so much merit." But she adds wisely: "If I were of the +opinion of the author, I would not bring to the light those mysteries +which will forever deprive him of all the confidence one might have in +him." + +There is one letter, written by the clever and beautiful Eleonore de +Rohan, Abbess de Malnoue, and addressed to the author, which deserves to +be read for its fine and just sentiments. In closing she says: + +The maxim upon humility appears to me perfectly beautiful; but I have +been so surprised to find it there, that I had the greatest difficulty +in recognizing it in the midst of all that precedes and follows it. It +is assuredly to make this virtue practiced among your own sex, that you +have written maxims in which their self-love is so little flattered. +I should be very much humiliated on my own part, if I did not say to +myself what I have already said to you in this note, that you judge +better the hearts of men than those of women, and that perhaps you do +not know yourself the true motive which makes you esteem them less. If +you had always met those whose temperament had been submitted to virtue, +and in whom the senses were less strong than reason, you would think +better of a certain number who distinguish themselves always from the +multitude; and it seems to me that Mme. de La Fayette and myself deserve +that you should have a better opinion of the sex in general. + +Mme. de La Fayette writes to the Marquise: "All people of good sense are +not so persuaded of the general corruption as is M. de La Rochefoucauld. +I return to you a thousand thanks for all you have done for this +gentleman."--At a later period she said: "La Rochefoucauld stimulated my +intellect, but I reformed his heart." It is to be regretted that he had +not known her sooner. + +At his request Mme. de Sable wrote a review of the maxims, which she +submitted to him for approval. It seems to have been a fair presentation +of both sides, but he thought it too severe, and she kindly gave him +permission to change it to suit himself. He took her at her word, +dropped the adverse criticisms, retained the eulogies, and published +it in the "Journal des Savants" as he wished it to go to the world. The +diplomatic Marquise saved her conscience and kept her friend. + +The maxims of La Rochefoucauld, which are familiar to all, have extended +into a literature. That he generalized from his own point of view, and +applied to universal humanity the motives of a class bent upon favor +and precedence, is certainly true. But whatever we may think of his +sentiments, which were those of a man of the world whose observations +were largely in the atmosphere of courts, we are compelled to admit +his unrivaled finish and perfection of form. Similar theories of human +nature run through the maxims of Esprit and Saint Evremond, without +the exquisite turn which makes each one of La Rochefoucauld's a gem in +itself. His tone was that of a disappointed courtier, with a vein of +sadness only half disguised by cold philosophy and bitter cynicism. La +Bruyere, with a broader outlook upon humanity, had much of the same fine +analysis, with less conciseness and elegance of expression. Vauvenargues +and Joubert were his legitimate successors. But how far removed in +spirit! + +"The body has graces," writes Vauvenargues, "the mind has talents; has +the heart only vices? And man capable of reason, shall he be incapable +of virtue?" + +With a fine and delicate touch, Joubert says: "Virtue is the health of +the soul. It gives a flavor to the smallest leaves of life." + +These sentiments are in the vein of Pascal, who represents the most +spiritual element of the little coterie which has left such a legacy of +condensed thought to the world. + +The crowning act of the life of Mme. de Sable was her defense of Port +Royal. She united with Mme. de Longueville in protecting the persecuted +Jansenists, Nicole and Arnauld, but she had neither the courage, the +heroism, nor the partisan spirit of her more ardent companion. With all +her devotion she was something of a sybarite and liked repose. She had +the tact, during all the troubles which scattered her little circle, to +retain her friends, of whatever religious color, though not without a +few temporary clouds. Her diplomatic moderation did not quite please the +religieuses of Port Royal, and chilled a little her pleasant relations +with d'Andilly. + +Toward the close of her life, the Marquise was in the habit of secluding +herself for days together, and declining to see even her dearest +friends. The Abbe de la Victoire, piqued at not being received, spoke of +her one day as "the late Mme. la Marquise de Sable." + +La Rochefoucauld writes to her, "I know no more inventions for entering +your house; I am refused at the door every day." Mme. de La Fayette +declares herself offended, and cites this as a proof of her attachment, +saying, "There are very few people who could displease me by not wishing +to see me." But the friends of the Marquise are disposed to treat her +caprices very leniently. As the years went by and the interests of +life receded, Mme. de Sable became reconciled to the thought that had +inspired her with so much dread. When she died at the advanced age of +seventy-nine, the longed-for transition was only the quiet passing from +fevered dreams to peaceful sleep. + +It is a singular fact that this refined, exclusive, fastidious woman, in +whom the artistic nature was always dominant to the extent of weakness, +should have left a request to be buried, without ceremony, in the parish +cemetery with the people, remote alike from the tombs of her family and +the saints of Port Royal. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. MADAME DE SEVIGNE + +_Her Genius--Her Youth--Her unworthy Husband--Her impertinent Cousin--Her +love for her Daughter--Her Letters--Hotel de Carnavalet--Mme. Duiplessis +Guenegaud--Mme. de Coulanges--The Curtain Falls_ + +Among the brilliant French women of the seventeenth century, no one is +so well-known today as Mme. de Sevigne. She has not only been sung by +poets and portrayed by historians, but she has left us a complete record +of her own life and her own character. Her letters reflect every shade +of her many-sided nature, as well as the events, even the trifling +incidents, of the world in which she lived; the lineaments, the +experiences, the virtues, and the follies of the people whom she +knew. We catch the changeful tints of her mind that readily takes the +complexion of those about her, while retaining its independence; we are +made familiar with her small joys and sorrows, we laugh with her at her +own harmless weaknesses, we feel the inspiration of her sympathy, +we hear the innermost throbbings of her heart. No one was ever less +consciously a woman of letters. No one would have been more surprised +than herself at her own fame. One is instinctively sure that she would +never have seated herself deliberately to write a book of any sort +whatever. While she was planning a form for her thoughts, they would +have flown. She was essentially a woman of the great world, for which +she was fitted by her position, her temperament, her esprit, her tastes, +and her character. She loved its variety, its movement, its gaiety; +she judged leniently even its faults and its frailties. If they often +furnished a target for her wit, behind her sharpest epigrams one detects +an indulgent smile. + +The natural outlet for her full mind and heart was in conversation. +When she was alone, they found vent in conversation of another sort. She +talks on paper. Her letters have the unstudied freedom, the rapidity, +the shades, the inflections of spoken words. She gives her thoughts +their own course, "with reins upon the neck," as she was fond of saying, +and without knowing where they will lead her. But it is the personal +element that inspires her. Let her heart be piqued, or touched by a +profound affection, and her mind is illuminated; her pen flies. +Her nature unveils itself, her emotions chase one another in quick +succession, her thoughts crystallize with wonderful brilliancy, and the +world is reflected in a thousand varying colors. The sparkling wit, +the swift judgment, the subtle insight, the lightness of touch, the +indefinable charm of style--these belong to her temperament and her +genius. But the clearness, the justness of expression, the precision, +the simplicity that was never banal--such qualities nature does +not bestow. One must find their source in careful training, in wise +criticism, in early familiarity with good models. + +Living from 1626 to 1696, Mme. de Sevigne was en rapport with the best +life of the great century of French letters. She was the granddaughter +of the mystical Mme. de Chantal, who was too much occupied with her +convents and her devotions to give much attention to the little Marie, +left an orphan at the age of six years. The child did not inherit much +of her grandmother's spirit of reverence, and at a later period was wont +to indulge in many harmless pleasantries about her pious ancestress and +"our grandfather, St. Francois de Sales." Deprived so early of the +care of a mother, she was brought up by an uncle, the good Abbe de +Coulanges--the "Bien-Bon"--whose life was devoted to her interests. +Though born in the Place Royale, that long-faded center of so much that +was brilliant and fascinating two centuries ago, much of her youth was +passed in the family chateau at Livry, where she was carefully educated +in a far more solid fashion than was usual among the women of her time. +She had an early introduction to the Hotel de Rambouillet, and readily +caught its intellectual tastes, though she always retained a certain +bold freedom of speech and manners, quite opposed to its spirit. + +Her instructors were Chapelain and Menage, both honored habitues of that +famous salon. The first was a dull poet, a profound scholar, somewhat of +a pedant, and notoriously careless in his dress--le vieux Chapelain, +his irreverent pupil used to call him. When he died of apoplexy, years +afterwards, she wrote to her daughter: "He confesses by pressing the +hand; he is like a statue in his chair. So God confounds the pride of +philosophers." But he taught her Latin, Spanish, and Italian, made her +familiar with the beauties of Virgil and Tasso, and gave her a critical +taste for letters. + +Menage was younger, and aspired to be a man of the world as well as a +savant. Repeating one day the remark of a friend, that out of ten things +he knew he had learned nine in conversation, he added, "I could say +about the same thing myself"--a confession that savors more of the +salon than of the library. He had a good deal of learning, but much +pretension, and Moliere has given him an undesirable immortality as +Vadius in "Les Femmes Savantes," in company with his deadly enemy, the +Abbe Cotin, who figures as "Trissotin." It appears that the susceptible +savant lost his heart to his lively pupil, and sighed not only in secret +but quite openly. He wrote her bad verses in several languages, loaded +her with eulogies, and followed her persistently. "The name of Mme. +de Sevigne," said the Bishop of Laon, "is in the works of Menage what +Bassan's dog is in his portraits. He cannot help putting it there." She +treated him in a sisterly fashion that put to flight all sentimental +illusions, but she had often to pacify his wounded vanity. One day, in +the presence of several friends, she gave him a greeting rather more +cordial than dignified. Noticing the looks of surprise, she turned away +laughing and said, "So they kissed in the primitive church." But the +wide knowledge and scholarly criticism of Menage were of great value to +the versatile woman, who speedily surpassed her master in style if not +in learning. Evidently she appreciated him, since she addressed him in +one of her letters as "friend of all friends, the best." + +At eighteen the gay and unconventional Marie de Rabutin-Chantal was +married to the Marquis de Sevigne; but her period of happiness was a +short one. The husband, who was rich, handsome, and agreeable, proved +weak and faithless. He was one of the temporary caprices of the +dangerous Ninon, led a dashing, irresponsible life, spent his fortune +recklessly, and left his pretty young wife to weep alone at a convenient +distance, under the somber skies of Brittany. Fortunately for her and +for posterity, his career was rapid and brief. For some trifling affair +of so-called honor--a quality of which, from our point of view, he +does not seem to have possessed enough to be worth the trouble of +defending--he had the kindness to get himself killed in a duel, after +seven years of marriage. His spirited wife had loved him sincerely, and +first illusions die slowly. She shed many bitter and natural tears, but +she never showed any disposition to repeat the experiment. Perhaps she +was of the opinion of another young widow who thought it "a fine thing +to bear the name of a man who can commit no more follies." But it is +useless to speculate upon the reasons why a woman does or does not +marry. It is certain that the love of her two children filled the heart +of Mme. de Sevigne; her future life was devoted to their training, and +to repairing a fortune upon which her husband's extravagance had made +heavy inroads. + +But the fascinating widow of twenty-five had a dangerous path to +tread. That she lived in a society so lax and corrupt, unprotected and +surrounded by distinguished admirers, without a shadow of suspicion +having fallen upon her fair reputation is a strong proof of her good +judgment and her discretion. She was not a great beauty, though the +flattering verses of her poet friends might lead one to think so. A +complexion fresh and fair, eyes of remarkable brilliancy, an abundance +of blond hair, a face mobile and animated, and a fine figure--these were +her visible attractions. She danced well, sang well, talked well, and +had abounding health. Mme. de La Fayette made a pen-portrait of her, +which was thought to be strikingly true. It was in the form of a letter +from an unknown man. A few extracts will serve to bring her more vividly +before us. + +"Your mind so adorns and embellishes your person, that there is no one +in the world so fascinating when you are animated by a conversation from +which constraint is banished. All that you say has such a charm, and +becomes you so well, that the words attract the Smiles and the Graces +around you; the brilliancy of your intellect gives such luster to your +complexion and your eyes, that although it seems that wit should touch +only the ears, yours dazzles the sight. + +"Your soul is great and elevated. You are sensitive to glory and to +ambition, and not less so to pleasures; you were born for them and they +seem to have been made for you... In a word, joy is the true state of +your soul, and grief is as contrary to it as possible. You are naturally +tender and impassioned; there was never a heart so generous, so noble, +so faithful... You are the most courteous and amiable person that ever +lived, and the sweet, frank air which is seen in all your actions makes +the simplest compliments of politeness seem from your lips protestations +of friendship." + +Mlle. de Scudery sketches her as the Princesse Clarinte in "Clelie," +concluding with these words: "I have never seen together so many +attractions, so much gaiety, so much coquetry, so much light, so much +innocence and virtue. No one ever understood better the art of having +grace without affectation, raillery without malice, gaiety without +folly, propriety without constraint, and virtue without severity." + +Her malicious cousin, Bussy-Rabutin, who was piqued by her indifference, +and basely wished to avenge himself, said that her "warmth was in +her intellect;" that for a woman of quality she was too badine, too +economical, too keenly alive to her own interests; that she made +too much account of a few trifling words from the queen, and was too +evidently flattered when the king danced with her. This opinion of a +vain and jealous man is not entitled to great consideration, especially +when we recall that he had already spoken of her as "the delight of +mankind," and said that antiquity would have dressed altars for her +and she would "surely have been goddess of something." The most +incomprehensible page in her history is her complaisance towards the +persistent impertinences of this perfidious friend. The only solution of +it seems to lie in the strength of family ties, and in her unwillingness +to be on bad terms with one of her very few near relatives. +Bussy-Rabutin was handsome, witty, brilliant, a bel esprit, a member of +the Academie Francaise, and very much in love with his charming cousin, +who clearly appreciated his talents, if not his character. "You are the +fagot of my intellect," she says to him; but she forbids him to talk +of love. Unfortunately for himself, his vanity got the better of his +discretion. He wrote the "Histoire Amoureuse des Gauls," and raised such +a storm about his head by his attack upon many fair reputations, that, +after a few months of lonely meditation in the Bastille, he was exiled +from Paris for seventeen years. Long afterwards he repented the +unkind blow he had given to Mme. de Sevigne, confessed its injustice, +apologized, and made his peace. But the world is less forgiving, and +wastes little sympathy upon the base but clever and ambitious man who +was doomed to wear his restless life away in the uncongenial solitude of +his chateau. + +Among the numerous adorers of Mme. de Sevigne were the Prince de Conti, +the witty Comte de Lude, the poet Segrais, Fouquet, and Turenne. Her +friendship for the last two seems to have been the most lively and +permanent. We owe to her sympathetic pen the best account of the death +of Turenne. Her devotion to the interests of Fouquet and his family +lasted though the many years of imprisonment that ended only with his +life. There was nothing of the spirit of the courtier in her generous +affection for the friends who were out of favor. The loyalty of her +character was notably displayed in her unwavering attachment to Cardinal +de Retz, during his long period of exile and misfortune, after the +Fronde. + +But one must go outside the ordinary channels to find the veritable +romance of Mme. de Sevigne's life. Her sensibility lent itself with +great facility to impressions, and her gracious manners, her amiable +character, her inexhaustible fund of gaiety could not fail to bring her +a host of admirers. She had doubtless a vein of harmless coquetry, but +it was little more than the natural and variable grace of a frank and +sympathetic woman who likes to please, and who scatters about her the +flowers of a rich mind and heart, without taking violent passions too +seriously, if, indeed, she heeds them at all. Friendship, too, has +its shades, its subtleties, its half-perceptible and quite unconscious +coquetries. But the supreme passion of Mme. de Sevigne was her love +for her daughter. It was the exaltation of her mystical grandmother, +in another form. "To love as I love you makes all other friendships +frivolous," she writes. Whatever her gifts and attractions may have +been, she is known to the world mainly through this affection and the +letters which have immortalized it. Nowhere in literature has maternal +love found such complete and perfect expression. Nowhere do we find +a character so clearly self-revealed. Others have professed to unveil +their innermost lives, but there is always a suspicion of posing +in deliberate revelations. Mme. De Sevigne has portrayed herself +unconsciously. It is the experience of yesterday, the thought of today, +the hope of tomorrow, the love that is at once the joy and sorrow of all +the days, that are woven into a thousand varying but living forms. One +naturally seeks in the character of the daughter a key to the absorbing +sentiment which is the inspiration and soul of these letters; but one +does not find it there. More beautiful than her mother, more learned, +more accomplished, she lacked her sympathetic charm. Cold, reserved, +timid, and haughty, without vivacity and apparently without fine +sensibility, she was much admired but little loved by the world in which +she lived. "When you choose, you are adorable," wrote her mother; but +evidently she did not always so choose. Bussy-Rabutin says of her, "This +woman has esprit, but it is esprit soured and of insupportable egotism. +She will make as many enemies as her mother makes friends and adorers." +He did not like her, and one must again take his opinion with +reserve; but she says of herself that she is "of a temperament little +communicative." In her mature life she naively writes: "At first people +thought me amiable enough, but when they knew me better they loved me no +more." "The prettiest girl in France," whose beauty was expected to "set +the world on fire," created a mild sensation at court; was noticed by +the king, who danced with her, received her share of adulation, and +finally became the third wife of the Comte de Grignan, who carried her +off to Provence, to the lasting grief of her adoring mother, and to +the great advantage of posterity, which owes to this fact the series of +incomparable letters that made the fame of their writer, and threw so +direct and vivid a light upon an entire generation. + +The world has been inclined to regard the son of Mme. de Sevigne as the +more lovable of her two children, but she doubtless recognized in his +light and inconsequent character many of the qualities of her husband +which had given her so much sorrow during the brief years of her +marriage. Amiable, affectionate, and not without talent, he was +nevertheless the source of many anxieties and little pride. He followed +in the footsteps of his father, and became a willing victim to the +fascinations of Ninon; he frequented the society of Champmesle, where he +met habitually Boileau and Racine. He recited well, had a fine literary +taste, much sensibility, and a gracious ease of manner that made him +many friends. "He was almost as much loved as I am," remarked the +brilliant Mme. de Coulanges, after accompanying him on a visit to +Versailles. He appealed to Mme. de La Fayette to use her influence with +his mother to induce her to pay his numerous debts. There is a touch of +satire in the closing line of the note in which she intercedes for him. +"The great friendship you have for Mme. de Grignan," she writes, "makes +it necessary to show some for her brother."--But we have glimpses of his +weakness and instability in many of his mother's intimate letters. In +the end, however, having exhausted the pleasures of life and felt the +bitterness of its disappointments, he took refuge in devotion, and died +in the odor of sanctity, after the example of his devout ancestress. + +Mme. de Grignan certainly offered a more solid foundation for her +mother's confidence and affection. It is quite possible, too, that her +reserve concealed graces of character only apparent on a close intimacy. +But love does not wait for reasons, and this one had all the shades and +intensities of a passion, with few of its exactions. D'Andilly called +the mother a "pretty pagan," because she made such an idol of her +daughter. She sometimes has her own misgivings on the score of +religion. "I make this a little Trappe," she wrote from Livry, after the +separation. "I wish to pray to God and make a thousand reflections; but, +Ma pauvre chere, what I do better than all that is to think of you. .. +I see you, you are present to me, I think and think again of everything; +my head and my mind are racked; but I turn in vain, I seek in vain; the +dear child whom I love with so much passion is two hundred leagues away. +I have her no more. Then I weep without the power to help myself." +She rings the changes upon this inexhaustible theme. A responsive word +delights her; a brief silence terrifies her; a slight coldness plunges +her into despair. "I have an imagination so lively that uncertainty +makes me die," she writes. If a shadow of grief touches her idol, her +sympathies are overflowing. "You weep, my very dear child; it is an +affair for you; it is not the same thing for me, it is my temperament." + +But though this love pulses and throbs behind all her letters, it does +not make up the substance of them. To amuse her daughter she gathers all +the gossip of the court, all the news of her friends; she keeps her au +courant with the most trifling as well as the most important events. Now +she entertains her with a witty description of a scene at Versailles, a +tragical adventure, a gracious word about Mme. Scarron, "who sups with +me every evening," a tender message from Mme. de La Fayette; now it is a +serious reflection upon the death of Turenne, a vivid picture of her own +life, a bit of philosophy, a spicy anecdote about a dying man who takes +forty cups of tea every morning, and is cured. A few touches lay bare a +character or sketch a vivid scene. It is this infinite variety of detail +that gives such historic value to her letters. In a correspondence so +intimate she has no interest to conciliate, no ends to gain. She is +simply a mirror in which the world about her is reflected. + +But the most interesting thing we read in her letters is the life +and nature of the woman herself. She has a taste for society and for +seclusion, for gaiety and for thought, for friendship and for books. For +the moment each one seems dominant. "I am always of the opinion of the +one heard last," she says, laughing at her own impressibility. It is an +amiable admission, but she has very fine and rational ideas of her own, +notwithstanding. In books, for which she had always a passion, she +found unfailing consolation. Corneille and La Fontaine were her favorite +traveling companions. "I am well satisfied to be a substance that +thinks and reads," she says, finding her good uncle a trifle dull for +a compagnon de voyage. Her tastes were catholic. She read Astree with +delight, loved Petrarch, Ariosto, and Montaigne; Rabelais made her "die +of laughter," she found Plutarch admirable, enjoyed Tacitus as keenly as +did Mme. Roland a century later, read Josephus and Lucian, dipped into +the history of the crusades and of the iconoclasts, of the holy fathers +and of the saints. She preferred the history of France to that of Rome +because she had "neither relatives nor friends in the latter place." +She finds the music of Lulli celestial and the preaching of Bourdaloue +divine. Racine she did not quite appreciate. In his youth, she said he +wrote tragedies for Champmesle and not for posterity. Later she modified +her opinion, but Corneille held always the first place in her affection. +She had a great love for books on morals, read and reread the essays +of Nicole, which she found a perpetual resource against the ills of +life--even rain and bad weather. St. Augustine she reads with pleasure, +and she is charmed with Bossuet and Pascal; but she is not very devout, +though she often tries to be. There is a serious naivete in all her +efforts in this direction. She seems to have always one eye upon the +world while she prays, and she mourns over her own lack of devotion. +"I wish my heart were for God as it is for you," she writes to her +daughter. "I am neither of God nor of the devil," she says again; "that +state troubles me though, between ourselves, I find it the most natural +in the world." Her reason quickly pierces to the heart of superstition; +sometimes she cannot help a touch of sarcasm. "I fear that this trappe, +which wishes to pass humanity, may become a lunatic asylum," she says. +She believes little in saints and processions. Over the high altar of +her chapel she writes SOLI DEO HONOR ET GLORIA. "It is the way to make +no one jealous," she remarks. + +She was rather inclined toward Jansenism, but she could not fathom all +the subtleties of her friends the Port Royalists, and begged them to +"have the kindness, out of pity for her, to thicken their religion a +little as it evaporated in so much reasoning." As she grows older the +tone of seriousness is more perceptible. "If I could only live two +hundred years," she writes, "it seems to me that I might be an admirable +person." The rationalistic tendencies of Mme. de Grignan give her some +anxiety, and she rallies her often upon the doubtful philosophy of her +PERE DESCARTES. She could not admit a theory which pretended to +prove that her dog Marphise had no soul, and she insisted that if the +Cartesians had any desire to go to heaven, it was out of curiosity. +"Talk to the Cardinal (de Retz) a little of your MACHINES; machines +that love, machines that have a choice for some one, machines that are +jealous, machines that fear. ALLEZ, ALLEZ, you are jesting! Descartes +never intended to make us believe all that." + +In her youth Mme. de Sevigne did not like the country because it was +windy and spoiled her beautiful complexion; perhaps, too, because it +was lonely. But with her happy gift of adaptation she came to love +its tranquillity. She went often to the solitary old family chateau in +Brittany to make economies and to retrieve the fortune which suffered +successively from the reckless extravagance of her husband and son, +and from the expensive tastes of the Comte de Grignan, who was acting +governor of Provence, and lived in a state much too magnificent for +his resources. Of her life at The Rocks she has left us many exquisite +pictures. "I go out into the pleasant avenues; I have a footman who +follows me; I have books, I change place, I vary the direction of my +promenade; a book of devotion, a book of history; one changes from one +to the other; that gives diversion; one dreams a little of God, of his +providence; one possesses one's soul, one thinks of the future." + +She embellishes her park, superintends the planting of trees, and "a +labyrinth from which one could not extricate one's self without the +thread of Ariadne;" she fills her garden with orange trees and jessamine +until the air is so perfumed that she imagines herself in Provence. She +sits in the shade and embroiders while her son "reads trifles, comedies +which he plays like Moliere, verses, romances, tales; he is very +amusing, he has esprit, he is appreciative, he entertains us." She notes +the changing color of the leaves, the budding of the springtime. "It +seems to me that in case of need I should know very well how to make a +spring," she writes. She loves too the "fine, crystal days of autumn." +Sometimes, in the evening, she has "gray-brown thoughts which grow black +at night," but she never dwells upon these. Her "habitual thought--that +which one must have for God, if one does his duty"--is for her daughter. +"My dear child," she writes, "it is only you that I prefer to the +tranquil repose I enjoy here." + +If her own soul is open to us in all its variable and charming moods, we +also catch in her letters many unconscious reflections of her daughter's +character. She offers her a little needed worldly advice. "Try, my +child," she says, "to adjust yourself to the manners and customs of the +people with whom you live; adapt yourself to that which is not bad; do +not be disgusted with that which is only mediocre; make a pleasure +of that which is not ridiculous." She entreats her to love the little +Pauline and not to scold her, nor send her away to the convent as she +did her sister Marie-Blanche. With what infinite tenderness she always +speaks of this child, smiling at her small outbursts of temper, soothing +her little griefs, and giving wise counsels about her education. +Evidently she doubted the patience of the mother. "You do not yet too +well comprehend maternal love," she writes; "so much the better, my +child; it is violent." + +Unfortunately this adoring mother could not get on very well with her +daughter when they were together. She drowned her with affection, she +fatigued her with care for her health, she was hurt by her ungracious +manner, she was frozen by her indifference in short, they killed each +other. It is not a rare thing to make a cult of a distant idol, and to +find one's self unequal to the perpetual shock of the small collisions +which diversities of taste and temperament render inevitable in daily +intercourse. In this instance, one can readily imagine that a love +so interwoven with every fiber of the mother's life, must have been a +little over-sensitive, a little exacting, a trifle too demonstrative for +the colder nature of the daughter; but that it was the less genuine and +profound, no one who has at all studied the character of Mme. de Sevigne +can for a moment imagine. How she suffers when it becomes necessary for +Mme. de Grignan to go back to Provence! How the tears flow! How readily +she forgives all, even to denying that there is anything to forgive. "A +word, a sweetness, a return, a caress, a tenderness, disarms me, cures +me in a moment," she writes. And again: "Would to God, my daughter, +that I might see you once more at the Hotel de Carnavalet, not for eight +days, nor to make there a penitence, but to embrace you and to make you +see clearly that I cannot be happy without you, and that the chagrins +which my friendship for you might give me are more agreeable than +all the false peace of a wearisome absence." In spite of these little +clouds, the old love is never dimmed; we are constantly bewildered with +the inexhaustible riches of a heart which gives so lavishly and really +asks so little for itself. + +The Hotel de Carnavalet was one of the social centers of the latter part +of the century, but it was the source of no special literature and of no +new diversions. Mme. de Sevigne was herself luminous, and her fame +owes none of its luster to the reflection from those about her. She was +original and spontaneous. She read because she liked to read, and not +because she wished to be learned. She wrote as she talked, from the +impulse of the moment, without method or aim excepting to follow where +her rapid thought led her. Her taste for society was of the same order. +Her variable and sparkling genius would have broken loose from the +formal conversations and rather studied brilliancy that had charmed her +youth at the Hotel de Rambouillet. The onerous duties of a perpetual +hostess would not have suited her temperament, which demanded its hours +of solitude and repose. But she was devoted to her friends, and there +was a delightful freedom in all her intercourse with them. She has not +chronicled her salon, but she has chronicled her world, and we gather +from her letters the quality of her guests. She liked to pass an evening +in the literary coterie at the Luxembourg; to drop in familiarly upon +Mme. de La Fayette, where she found La Rochefoucauld, Cardinal de Retz, +sometimes Segrais, Huet, La Fontaine, Moliere, and other wits of the +time; to sup with Mme. de Coulanges and Mme. Scarron. She is a constant +visitor at the old Hotel de Nevers, where Marie de Gonzague and the +Princesse Palatine had charmed an earlier generation, and where Mme. +Duplessis Guenegaud, a woman of brilliant intellect, heroic courage, +large heart, and pure character, whom d'Andilly calls one of the great +souls, presided over a new circle of young poets and men of letters, +reviving the fading memories of the Hotel de Rambouillet. Mme. De +Sevigne, who had fine dramatic talent, acted here in little comedies. +She heard Boileau read his satires and Racine his tragedies. She met the +witty Chevalier de Chatillon, who asked eight days to make an impromptu, +and Pomponne, who wrote to his father that the great world he found +in this salon did not prevent him from appearing in a gray habit. In a +letter from the country house of Mme. Duplessis, at Fresnes, to the same +Pomponne, then ambassador to Sweden, Mme. de Sevigne says: "I have M. +d'Andilly at my left, that is, on the side of my heart; I have Mme. +de La Fayette at my right; Mme. Duplessis before me, daubing little +pictures; Mme. De Motteville a little further off, who dreams +profoundly; our uncle de Cessac, whom I fear because I do not know him +very well." + +It is this life of charming informality; this society of lettered +tastes, of wit, of talent, of distinction, that she transfers to her +own salon. Its continuity is often broken by her long absences in the +country or in Provence, but her irresistible magnetism quickly draws the +world around her, on her return. In addition to her intimate friends +and to men of letters like Racine, Boileau, Benserade, one meets +representatives of the most distinguished of the old families of France. +Conde, Richelieu, Colberg, Louvois, and Sully are a few among the great +names, of which the list might be indefinitely extended. We have many +interesting glimpses of the Grande Mademoiselle, the "adorable" Duchesse +de Chaulnes, the Duc and Duchesse de Rohan, who were "Germans in the +art of savoir-vivre," the Abbess de Fontevrault, so celebrated for her +esprit and her virtue, and a host of others too numerous to mention. The +sculptured portals and time-stained walls of the Hotel de Carnavalet are +still alive with the memories of these brilliant reunions and the famous +people who shone there two hundred years ago. + +Among those who exercised the most important influence upon the life +of Mme. de Sevigne was Corbinelli, the wise counselor, who, with a +soul untouched by the storms of adversity through which he had passed, +devoted his life to letters and the interests of his friends. No one had +a finer appreciation of her gifts and her character. Her compared her +letters to those of Cicero, but he always sought to temper her ardor, +and to turn her thoughts toward an elevated Christian philosophy. +"In him," said Mme. de Sevigne, "I defend one who does not cease to +celebrate the perfections and the existence of God; who never judges his +neighbor, who excuses him always; who is insensible to the pleasures and +delights of life, and entirely submissive to the will of Providence; +in fine, I sustain the faithful admirer of Sainte Therese, and of my +grandmother, Sainte Chantal." This gentle, learned, and disinterested +man, whose friendship deepened with years, was an unfailing resource. In +her troubles and perplexities she seeks his advice; in her intellectual +tastes she is sustained by his sympathy. She speaks often of the happy +days in Provence, when, together with her daughter, they translate +Tacitus, read Tasso, and get entangled in endless discussions upon +Descartes. Even Mme. de Grignan, who rarely likes her mother's friends, +in the end gives due consideration to this loyal confidant, though +she does not hesitate to ridicule the mysticism into which he finally +drifted. + +After Mme. de La Fayette, the woman whose relations with Mme. de Sevigne +were the most intimate was Mme. de Coulanges, who merits here more than +a passing word. Her wit was proverbial, her popularity universal. The +Leaf, the Fly, the Sylph, the Goddess, her friend calls her in turn, +with many a light thrust at her volatile but loyal character. This +brilliant, spirituelle, caustic woman was the wife of a cousin of the +Marquis de Sevigne, who was as witty as herself and more inconsequent. +Both were amiable, both sparkled with bons mots and epigrams, but they +failed to entertain each other. The husband goes to Italy or Germany or +passes his time in various chateaux, where he is sure of a warm welcome +and good cheer. The wife goes to Versailles, visits her cousin Louvois, +the Duchesse de Richelieu, and Mme. de Maintenon, who loves her much; or +presides at home over a salon that is always well filled. "Ah, Madame," +said M. de Barillon, "how much your house pleases me! I shall come here +very evening when I am tired of my family." "Monsieur," she replied, "I +expect you tomorrow." When she was ill and likely to die, her husband +had a sudden access of affection, and nursed her with great tenderness. +Mme. de Coulanges dying and her husband in grief, seemed somehow out +of the order of things. "A dead vivacity, a weeping gaiety, these are +prodigies," wrote Mme. de Sevigne. When the wife recovered, however, +they took their separate ways as before. + +"Your letters are delicious," she wrote once to Mme. de Sevigne, "and +you are as delicious as your letters." Her own were as much sought in +her time, but she had no profound affection to consecrate them and no +children to collect them, so that only a few have been preserved. There +is a curious vein of philosophy in one she wrote to her husband, when +the pleasures of life began to fade. "As for myself, I care little for +the world; I find it no longer suited to my age; I have no engagements, +thank God, to retain me there. I have seen all there is to see. I have +only an old face to present to it, nothing new to show nor to discover +there. Ah! What avails it to recommence every day the visits, to trouble +one's self always about things that do not concern us? .... My dear sir, +we must think of something more solid." She disappears from the scene +shortly after the death of Mme. De Sevigne. Long years of silence and +seclusion, and another generation heard one day that she had lived and +that she was dead. + +The friends of Mme. de Sevigne slip away one after another; La +Rochefoucauld, De Retz, Mme. de La Fayette are gone. "Alas!" she writes, +"how this death goes running about and striking on all sides." The +thought troubles her. "I am embarked in life without my consent," she +says; "I must go out of it--that overwhelms me. And how shall I go? +Whence: By what door? When will it be? In what disposition: How shall +I be with God? What have I to present to him? What can I hope?--Am I +worthy of paradise? Am I worthy of hell? What an alternative! What a +complication! I would like better to have died in the arms of my nurse." + +The end came to her in the one spot where she would most have wished +it. She died while on a visit to her daughter in Provence. Strength +and resignation came with the moment, and she faced with calmness +and courage the final mystery. To the last she retained her wit, her +vivacity, and that eternal youth of the spirit which is one of the +rarest of God's gifts to man. "There are no more friends left to me," +said Mme. de Coulanges; and later she wrote to Mme. de Grignan, "The +grief of seeing her no longer is always fresh to me. I miss too many +things at the Hotel de Carnavalet." + +The curtain falls upon this little world which the magical pen of Mme. +de Sevigne has made us know so well. The familiar faces retreat into the +darkness, to be seen no more. But the picture lives, and the woman who +has outlined it so clearly, and colored it so vividly and so tenderly, +smiles upon us still, out of the shadows of the past, crowned with the +white radiance of immortal genius and immortal love. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. MADAME DE LA FAYETTE + +_Her Friendship with Mme. de Sevigne--Her Education--Her Devotion to +the Princess Henrietta--Her Salon--La Rochefoucauld--Talent as +a Diplomatist--Comparison with Mme. de Maintenon Her Literary +Work--Sadness of her Last Days--Woman in Literature_ + +"Believe me, my dearest, you are the person in the world whom I have +most truly loved," wrote Mme. de La Fayette to Mme. de Sevigne a short +time before her death. This friendship of more than forty years, which +Mme. de Sevigne said had never suffered the least cloud, was a living +tribute to the mind and heart of both women. It may also be cited +for the benefit of the cynically disposed who declare that feminine +friendships are simply "pretty bows of ribbon" and nothing more. These +women were fundamentally unlike, but they supplemented each other. The +character of Mme. de La Fayette was of firmer and more serious texture. +She had greater precision of thought, more delicacy of sentiment, and +affections not less deep. But her temperament was less sunny, her +genius less impulsive, her wit less sparkling, and her manner less +demonstrative. "She has never been without that divine reason which was +her dominant trait," wrote her friend. No praise pleased her so much as +to be told that her judgment was superior to her intellect, and that she +loved truth in all things. "She would not have accorded the least favor +to any one, if she had not been convinced it was merited," said Segrais; +"this is why she was sometimes called hard, though she was really +tender." As an evidence of her candor, he thinks it worth while to +record that "she did not even conceal her age, but told freely in what +year and place she was born." But she combined to an eminent degree +sweetness with strength, sensibility with reason, and it was the +blending of such diverse qualities that gave so rare a flavor to her +character. In this, too, lies the secret of the vast capacity for +friendship which was one of her most salient points. It is through the +records which these friendships have left, through the literary work +that formed the solace of so many hours of sadness and suffering, and +through the letters of Mme. de Sevigne, that we are able to trace the +classic outlines of this fine and complex nature, so noble, so poetic, +so sweet, and yet so strong. + +Mme. de La Fayette was eight years younger than Mme. de Sevigne, and +died three years earlier; hence they traversed together the brilliant +world of the second half of the century of which they are among the +most illustrious representatives. The young Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La +Vergne had inherited a taste for letters and was carefully instructed by +her father, who was a field-marshal and the governor of Havre, where he +died when she was only fifteen. She had not passed the first flush of +youth when her mother contracted a second marriage with the Chevalier +Renaud de Sevigne, whose name figures among the frondeurs as the ardent +friend of Cardinal de Retz, and later among the devout Port Royalists. +It is a fact of more interest to us that he was an uncle of the Marquis +de Sevigne, and the best result of the marriage to the young girl, who +was not at all pleased and whose fortunes it clouded a little, was to +bring her into close relations with the woman to whom we owe the most +intimate details of her life. + +The rare natural gifts of Mlle. De La Vergne were not left without due +cultivation. Rapin and Menage taught her Latin. "That tiresome Menage," +as she lightly called him, did not fail, according to his custom, to +lose his susceptible heart to the remarkable pupil who, after three +months of study, translated Virgil and Horace better than her masters. +He put this amiable weakness on record in many Latin and Italian +verses, in which he addresses her as Laverna, a name more musical than +flattering, if one recalls its Latin significance. She received an +education of another sort, in the salon of her mother, a woman of much +intelligence, as well as a good deal of vanity, who posed a little as a +patroness of letters, gathering about her a circle of beaux esprits, +and in other ways signaling the taste which was a heritage from her +Provencal ancestry. On can readily imagine the rapidity with which +the young girl developed in such an atmosphere. The abbe Costar, "most +gallant of pedants and most pedantic of gallants," who had an equal +taste for literature and good dinners, calls her "the incomparable," +sends her his books, corresponds with her, and expresses his delight at +finding her "so beautiful, so spirituelle, so full of reason." The poet +Scarron speaks of her as "toute lumineuse, toute precieuse." + +The circle she met in the salon of her godmother, the Duchesse +d'Aiguillon, had no less influence in determining her future fortunes. +With her rare reputation for beauty and esprit, as well as learning, +she took her place early in this brilliant and distinguished society in +which she was to play so graceful and honored a part. She was sought and +admired not only by the men of letters who were so cordially welcomed +by the favorite niece of Richelieu, but by the gay world that habitually +assembled at the Petit Luxembourg. It was here that she perfected the +tone of natural elegance which always distinguished her and made her +conspicuous even at court, where she passed so many years of her life. + +She was not far from twenty-one when she became the wife of the Comte de +La Fayette, of whom little is known save that he died early, leaving her +with two sons. He is the most shadowy of figures, and whether he made +her life happy or sad does not definitely appear, though there is a +vague impression that he left something to be desired in the way of +devotion. A certain interest attaches to him as the brother of the +beautiful Louise de La Fayette, maid of honor to Anne of Austria, who +fled from the compromising infatuation of Louis XIII, to hide her youth +and fascinations in the cloister, under the black robe and the cherished +name of Mere Angelique de Chaillot. + +The young, brilliant, and gifted comtesse goes to the convent to visit +her gently austere sister-in-law, and meets there the Princess Henrietta +of England, than a child of eleven years. The attraction is mutual +and ripens into a deep and lasting friendship. When this graceful and +light-hearted girl becomes the Duchesse d'Orleans, and sister-in-law +of the king, she attaches her friend to her court and makes her the +confidante of her romantic experiences. "Do you not think," she said +to her one day, "that if all which has happened to me, and the things +relating to it, were told it would make a fine story? You write well; +write; I will furnish you good materials." The interesting memorial, +to which madame herself contributes many pages, is interrupted by +the mysterious death of the gay and charming woman who had found so +sympathetic and so faithful a chronicler. She breathed her last sigh in +the arms of this friend. "It is one of those sorrows for which one never +consoles one's self, and which leave a shadow over the rest of one's +life," wrote Mme. de La Fayette. She had no heart to finish the history, +and added only the few simple lines that record the touching incidents +which left upon her so melancholy and lasting an impression. She did not +care to remain longer at court, where she was constantly reminded of her +grief, and retired permanently from its gaieties; but in these years of +intimacy with one of its central figures, she had gained an insight +into its spirit and its intrigues, which was of inestimable value in the +memoirs and romances of her later years. + +The natural place of Mme. de La Fayette was in a society of more serious +tone and more lettered tastes. In her youth she had been taken by her +mother to the Hotel de Rambouillet, and she always retained much of its +spirit, without any of its affectations. We find her sometimes at +the Samedis, and she belonged to the exclusive coterie of the Grande +Mademoiselle, at the Luxembourg, where her facile pen was in demand for +the portraits so much in vogue. She was also a frequent visitor in the +literary salon of Mme. de Sable, at Port Royal. It was here that her +friendship with La Rochefoucauld glided imperceptibly into the intimacy +which became so important a feature in her life. This intimacy was +naturally a matter of some speculation, but the world made up its +mind of its perfectly irreproachable character. "It appears to be only +friendship," writes Mme. de Scudery to Bussy-Rabutin; "in short the fear +of God on both sides, and perhaps policy, have cut the wings of love. +She is his favorite and his first friend." "I do not believe he has +ever been what one calls in love," writes Mme. de Sevigne. But this +friendship was a veritable romance, without any of the storms or +vexations or jealousies of a passionate love. "You may imagine the +sweetness and charm of an intercourse full of all the friendship and +confidence possible between two people whose merit is not ordinary," +she says again; "add to this the circumstance of their bad health, which +rendered them almost necessary to each other, and gave them the +leisure not to be found in other relations, to enjoy each other's +good qualities. It seems to me that at court people have no time for +affection; the whirlpool which is so stormy for others was peaceful +for them, and left ample time for the pleasures of a friendship so +delicious. I do not believe that any passion can surpass the strength of +such a tie." + +In the earlier stages of this intimacy, Mme. de La Fayette was a little +sensitive as to how the world might regard it, as may be seen in a note +to Mme. de Sable, in which she asks her to explain it to the young Comte +de Saint-Paul, a son of Mme. de Longueville. + +"I beg of you to speak of the matter in such a way as to put out of +his head the idea that it is anything serious," she writes. "I am not +sufficiently sure what you think of it yourself to feel certain that you +will say the right thing, and it may be necessary to begin by convincing +my embassador. However, I must trust to your tact, which is superior to +ordinary rules. Only convince him. I dislike mortally that people of his +age should imagine that I have affairs of gallantry. It seems to +them that every one older than themselves is a hundred, and they are +astonished that such should be regarded of any account. Besides, he +would believe these things of M. de La Rochefoucauld more readily than +of any one else. In fine, I do not want him to think anything about it +except that the gentleman is one of my friends." + +The picture we have of La Rochefoucauld from the pen of Mme. de Sevigne +has small resemblance to the ideal that one forms of the cynical author +of the Maxims. He had come out of the storms of the Fronde a sad and +disappointed man. The fires of his nature seem to have burned out with +the passions of his youth, if they had ever burned with great intensity. +"I have seen love nowhere except in romances," he says, and even his +devotion to Mme. de Longueville savors more of the ambitious courtier +than of the lover. His nature was one that recoiled from all violent +commotions of the soul. The cold philosophy of the Maxims marked perhaps +the reaction of his intellect against the disenchanting experiences of +his life. In the tranquil atmosphere of Mme. de Sable he found a certain +mental equilibrium; but his character was finally tempered and softened +by the gentle influence of Mme. de La Fayette, whose exquisite poise and +delicacy were singularly in harmony with a nature that liked nothing in +exaggeration. "I have seen him weep with a tenderness that made me adore +him," writes Mme. de Sevigne, after the death of his mother. "The heart +or M. de La Rochefoucauld for his family is a thing incomparable." When +the news came that his favorite grandson had been killed in battle, she +says again: "I have seen his heart laid bare in this cruel misfortune; +he ranks first among all I have ever known for courage, fortitude, +tenderness, and reason; I count for nothing his esprit and his charm." +In all the confidences of the two women, La Rochefoucauld makes a third. +He seems always to be looking over the shoulder of Mme. de La Fayette +while she writes to the one who "satisfies his idea of friendship in all +its circumstances and dependences"; adding usually a message, a line +or a pretty compliment to Mme. de Grignan that is more amiable than +sincere, because he knows it will gladden the heart of her adoring +mother. + +The side of Mme. de La Fayette which has the most fascination for us +is this intimate life of which Mme. de Sevigne gives such charming +glimpses. For a moment it was her ambition to establish a popular +salon, a role for which she had every requisite of position, talent, and +influence. "She presumed very much upon her esprit," says Gourville, +who did not like her, "and proposed to fill the place of the Marquise +de Sable, to whom all the young people were in the habit of paying great +deference, because, after she had fashioned them a little, it was a +passport for entering the world; but this plan did not succeed, as Mme. +de La Fayette was not willing to give her time to a thing so futile." +One can readily understand that it would not have suited her tastes or +her temperament. Besides, her health was too delicate, and her moods +were too variable. "You know how she is weary sometimes of the same +thing," wrote Mme. de Sevigne. But she had her coterie, which was +brilliant in quality if not in numbers. The fine house with its pretty +garden, which may be seen today opposite the Petit Luxembourg, was a +favorite meeting place for a distinguished circle. The central figure +was La Rochefoucauld. Every day he came in and seated himself in the +fauteuil reserved for him. One is reminded of the little salon in the +Abbaye-aux-Bois, where more than a century later Chateaubriand found +the pleasure and the consolation of his last days in the society of Mme. +Recamier. They talk, they write, they criticize each other, they receive +their friends. The Cardinal de Retz comes in, and they recall the fatal +souvenirs of the Fronde. Perhaps he thinks of the time when he found the +young Mlle. De LaVergne pretty and amiable, and she did not smile upon +him. The Prince de Conde is there sometimes, and honors her with his +confidence, which Mme. de Sevigne thinks very flattering, as he does +not often pay such consideration to women. Segrais has transferred his +allegiance from the Grande Mademoiselle to Mme. de La Fayette, and is +her literary counselor as well as a constant visitor. La Fontaine, +"so well known by his fables and tales, and sometimes so heavy in +conversation," may be found there. Mme. de Sevigne comes almost every +day with her sunny face and her witty story. "The Mist" she calls +Mme. de La Fayette, who is so often ill and sad. She might have called +herself The Sunbeam, though she, too, has her hours when she can only +dine tete-a-tete with her friend, because she is "so gloomy that +she cannot support four people together." Mme. de Coulanges adds her +graceful, vivacious, and sparkling presence. Mme. Scarron, before her +days of grandeur, is frequently of the company, and has lost none of the +charm which made the salon of her poet-husband so attractive during his +later years. "She has an amiable and marvelously just mind," says Mme. +de Sevigne... "It is pleasant to hear her talk. These conversations +often lead us very far, from morality to morality, sometimes Christian, +sometimes political." This circle was not limited however to a few +friends, and included from time to time the learning, the elegance and +the aristocracy of Paris. + +But Mme. de La Fayette herself is the magnet that quietly draws together +this fascinating world. In her youth she had much life and vivacity, +perhaps a spice of discreet coquetry, but at this period she was +serious, and her fresh beauty had given place to the assured and +captivating grace of maturity. She had a face that might have been +severe in its strength but for the sensibility expressed in the slight +droop of the head to one side, the tender curve of the full lips, and +the variable light of the dark, thoughtful eyes. In her last years, when +her stately figure had grown attenuated, and her face was pallid +with long suffering, the underlying force of her character was more +distinctly defined in the clear and noble outlines of her features. Her +nature was full of subtle shades. Over her reserved strength, her calm +judgment, her wise penetration played the delicate light of a lively +imagination, the shifting tints of a tender sensibility. Her sympathy +found ready expression in tears, and she could not even bear the +emotion of saying good-by to Mme. de Sevigne when she was going away to +Provence. But her accents were always tempered, and her manners had the +gracious and tranquil ease of a woman superior to circumstances. Her +extreme frankness lent her at times a certain sharpness, and she deals +many light blows at the small vanities and affectations that come under +her notice. "Mon Dieu," said the frivolous Mme. de Marans to her one +day, "I must have my hair cut." "Mon Dieu," replied Mme. de La Fayette +simply, "do not have it done; that is becoming only to young persons." +Gourville said she was imperious and over-bearing, scolding those she +loved best, as well as those she did not love. But this valet-de-chambre +of La Rochefoucauld, who amassed a fortune and became a man of some +note, was jealous of her influence over his former master, and his +opinions should be taken with reservation. Her delicate satire may have +been sometimes a formidable weapon, but it was directed only against +follies, and rarely, if ever, used unkindly. She was a woman for +intimacies, and it is to those who knew her best that we must look for +a just estimate of her qualities. "You would love her as soon as you +had time to be with her, and to become familiar with her esprit and her +wisdom," wrote Mme. de Sevigne to her daughter, who was disposed to be +critical; "the better one knows her, the more one is attached to her." + +One must also take into consideration her bad health. People thought +her selfish or indifferent when she was only sad and suffering. For more +than twenty years she was ill, consumed by a slow fever which permitted +her to go out only at intervals. La Rochefoucauld had the gout, and they +consoled each other. Mme. de Sevigne thought it better not to have the +genius of a Pascal, than to have so many ailments. "Mme. De La Fayette +is always languishing, M. de La Rochefoucauld always lame," she writes; +"we have conversations so sad that it seems as if there were nothing +more to do but to bury us; the garden of Mme. de La Fayette is the +prettiest spot in the world, everything blooming, everything perfumed; +we pass there many evenings, for the poor woman does not dare go out in +a carriage." "Her health is never good," she writes again, "nevertheless +she sends you word that she should not like death better; AU CONTRAIRE." +There are times when she can no longer "think, or speak, or answer, or +listen; she is tired of saying good morning and good evening." Then she +goes away to Meudon for a few days, leaving La Rochefoucauld "incredibly +sad." She speaks for herself in a letter from the country house which +Gourville has placed at her disposal. + +"I am at Saint Maur; I have left all my affairs and all my husbands; I +have my children and the fine weather; that suffices. I take the waters +of Forges; I look after my health, I see no one. I do not mind at all +the privation; every one seems to me so attached to pleasures which +depend entirely upon others, that I find my disposition a gift of the +fairies. + +"I do not know but Mme de Coulanges has already sent you word of our +after-dinner conversations at Gourville's about people who have taste +above or below their intelligence. Mme. Scarron and the Abbe Tetu were +there; we lost ourselves in subtleties until we no longer understood +anything. If the air of Provence, which subtilizes things still more, +magnifies for you our visions, you will be in the clouds. You have taste +below your intelligence; so has M. de La Rochefoucauld; and myself also, +but not so much as you two. VOILA an example which will guide you." + +She disliked writing letters, and usually limited herself to a few plain +facts, often in her late years to a simple bulletin of her health. This +negligence was the subject of many passages-at-arms between herself and +Mme. de Sevigne. "If I had a lover who wished my letters every morning, +I would break with him," she writes. "Do not measure our friendship by +our letters. I shall love you as much in writing you only a page in a +month, as you me in writing ten in eight days." Again she replies to +some reproach: "Make up your mind, ma belle, to see me sustain, all my +life, with the whole force of my eloquence, that I love you still more +than you love me. I will make Corbinelli agree with me in a quarter of +an hour; your distrust is your sole defect, and the only thing in you +that can displease me." + +But in spite of a certain apparent indolence, and her constant ill +health, there were many threads that connected with the outside world +the pleasant room in which Mme. de La Fayette spent so many days of +suffering. "She finds herself rich in friends from all sides and all +conditions," writes Mme. de Sevigne; "she has a hundred arms; she +reaches everywhere. Her children appreciate all this, and thank her +every day for possessing a spirit so engaging." She goes to Versailles, +on one of her best days, to thank the king for a pension, and receives +so many kind words that it "suggests more favors to come." He orders +a carriage and accompanies her with other ladies through the park, +directing his conversation to her, and seeming greatly pleased with +her judicious praise. She spends a few days at Chantilly, where she is +invited to all the fetes, and regrets that Mme. de Sevigne could not be +with her in that charming spot, which she is "fitted better than anyone +else to enjoy." No one understands so well the extent of her influence +and her credit as this devoted friend, who often quotes her to Mme. +de Grignan as a model. "Never did any one accomplish so much without +leaving her place," she says. + +But there was one phase in the life of Mme. de La Fayette which was not +fully confided even to Mme. de Sevigne. It concerns a chapter of obscure +political history which it is needless to dwell upon here, but which +throws much light upon her capacity for managing intricate affairs. Her +connection with it was long involved in mystery, and was only unveiled +in a correspondence given to the world at a comparatively recent date. +It was in the salon of the Grande Mademoiselle that she was thrown into +frequent relations with the two daughters of Charles Amedee de Savoie, +Duc de Nemours, one of whom became Queen of Portugal, the other Duchesse +de Savoie and, later, Regent during the minority of her son. These +relations resulted in one of the ardent friendships which played so +important a part in her career. Her intercourse with the beautiful +but vain, intriguing, and imperious Duchesse de Savoie assumed the +proportion of a delicate diplomatic mission. "Her salon," says Lescure, +"was, for the affairs of Savoy, a center of information much +more important in the eyes of shrewd politicians than that of the +ambassador." She not only looked after the personal matters of Mme. +Royale, but was practically entrusted with the entire management of her +interests in Paris. From affairs of state and affairs of the heart to +the daintiest articles of the toilette her versatile talent is called +into requisition. Now it is a message to Louvois or the king, now a turn +to be adroitly given to public opinion, now the selection of a perfume +or a pair of gloves. "She watches everything, thinks of everything, +combines, visits, talks, writes, sends counsels, procures advice, +baffles intrigues, is always in the breach, and renders more service +by her single efforts than all the envoys avowed or secret whom +the Duchesse keeps in France." Nor is the value of these services +unrecognized. "Have I told you," wrote Mme. de Sevigne to her daughter, +"that Mme. de Savoie has sent a hundred ells of the finest velvet in the +world to Mme. de La Fayette, and a hundred ells of satin to line it, +and two days ago her portrait, surrounded with diamonds, which is worth +three hundred louis?" + +The practical side of Mme. de La Fayette's character was remarkable in +a woman of so fine a sensibility and so rare a genius. Her friends +often sought her counsel; and it was through her familiarity with legal +technicalities that La Rochefoucauld was enabled to save his fortune, +which he was at one time in danger of losing. In clear insight, profound +judgment, and knowledge of affairs, she was scarcely, if at all, +surpassed by Mme. de Maintenon, the feminine diplomatist par excellence +of her time, though her field of action was less broad and conspicuous. +But her love of consideration was not so dominant and her ambition not +so active. It was one of her theories that people should live without +ambition as well as without passion. "It is sufficient to exist," she +said. Her energy when occasion called for it does not quite accord with +this passive philosophy, and suggests at least a vast reserved force; +but if she directed her efforts toward definite ends it was usually to +serve other interests than her own. She had been trained in a different +school from Mme. de Maintenon, her temperament was modified by her +frail health, and the prizes of life had come to her apparently +without special exertion. She was a woman, too, of more sentiment and +imagination. Her fastidious delicacy and luxurious tastes were the +subject of critical comment on the part of this austere censor, who +condemned the gilded decorations of her bed as a useless extravagance, +giving the characteristic reason that "the pleasure they afforded +was not worth the ridicule they excited." The old friendship that had +existed when Mme. Scarron was living in such elegant and mysterious +seclusion, devoting herself to the king's children, and finding her main +diversion in the little suppers enlivened by the wit of Mme. de Sevigne +and Mme. de Coulanges, and the more serious, but not less agreeable, +conversation of Mme. de La Fayette, had evidently grown cool. They had +their trifling disagreements. "Mme. de La Fayette puts too high a price +upon her friendship," wrote Mme. de Maintenon, who had once attached +such value to a few approving words from her. In her turn Mme. de La +Fayette indulged in a little light satire. Referring to the comedy of +Esther, which Racine had written by command for the pupils at Saint Cyr, +she said, "It represents the fall of Mme. de Montespan and the rise of +Mme. de Maintenon; all the difference is that Esther was rather younger, +and less of a precieuse in the matter of piety." There was certainly +less of the ascetic in Mme. de La Fayette. She had more color and also +more sincerity. In symmetry of character, in a certain feminine quality +of taste and tenderness, she was superior, and she seems to me to +have been of more intrinsic value as a woman. Whether under the same +conditions she would have attained the same power may be a question. +If not, I think it would have been because she was unwilling to pay the +price, not because she lacked the grasp, the tact, or the diplomacy. + +It is mainly as a woman of letters that Mme. de La Fayette is known +today, and it was through her literary work that she made the strongest +impression upon her time. Boileau said that she had a finer intellect +and wrote better than any other woman in France. But she wrote only for +the amusement of idle or lonely hours, and always avoided any display of +learning, in order not to attract jealousy as well as from instinctive +delicacy of taste. "He who puts himself above others," she said, +"whatever talent he may possess, puts himself below his talent." But +her natural atmosphere was an intellectual one, and the friend of La +Rochefoucauld, who would have "liked Montaigne for a neighbor," had her +own message for the world. Her mind was clear and vigorous, her taste +critical and severe, and her style had a flexible quality that readily +took the tone of her subject. In concise expression she doubtless +profited much from the author of the MAXIMS, who rewrote many of his +sentences at least thirty times. "A phrase cut out of a book is worth a +louis d'or," she said, "and every word twenty sous." Unfortunately her +"Memoires de la Cour de France" is fragmentary, as her son carelessly +lent the manuscripts, and many of them were lost. But the part that +remains gives ample evidence of the breadth of her intelligence, the +penetrating, lucid quality of her mind, and her talent for seizing the +salient traits of the life about her. In her romances, which were first +published under the name of Segrais, one finds the touch of an artist, +and the subtle intuitions of a woman. In the rapid evolution of modern +taste and the hopeless piling up of books, these works have fallen +somewhat into the shade, but they are written with a vivid naturalness +of style, a truth of portraiture, and a delicacy of sentiment, that +commend them still to all lovers of imaginative literature. Fontenelle +read the "Princesse de Cleves" four times when it appeared. La Harpe +said it was "the first romance that offered reasonable adventures +written with interest and elegance." It marked an era in the history of +the novel. "Before Mme. de La Fayette," said Voltaire, "people wrote +in a stilted style of improbable things." We have the rare privilege of +reading her own criticism in a letter to the secretary of the Duchesse +de Savoie, in which she disowns the authorship, and adds a few lines of +discreet eulogy. + +"As for myself," she writes, "I am flattered at being suspected of it. +I believe I should acknowledge the book, if I were assured the author +would never appear to claim it. I find it very agreeable and well +written without being excessively polished, full of things of admirable +delicacy, which should be read more than once; above all, it seems to +be a perfect presentation of the world of the court and the manner +of living there. It is not romantic or ambitious; indeed it is not a +romance; properly speaking, it is a book of memoirs, and that I am told +was its title, but it was changed. VOILA, monsieur, my judgment upon +Mme. De Cleves; I ask yours, for people are divided upon this book to +the point of devouring each other. Some condemn what others admire; +whatever you may say, do not fear to be alone in your opinion." + +Sainte-Beuve, whose portrait of Mme. de La Fayette is so delightful as +to make all others seem superfluous, has devoted some exquisite lines +to this book. "It is touching to think," he writes, "of the peculiar +situation which gave birth to these beings so charming, so pure, these +characters so noble and so spotless, these sentiments so fresh, so +faultless, so tender;" how Mme. de La Fayette put into it all that her +loving, poetic soul retained of its first, ever-cherished dreams, and +how M. de La Rochefoucauld was pleased doubtless to find once more in +"M. De Nemours" that brilliant flower of chivalry which he had too much +misused--a sort of flattering mirror in which he lived again his youth. +Thus these two old friends renewed in imagination the pristine beauty of +that age when they had not known each other, hence could not love each +other. The blush so characteristic of Mme. De Cleves, and which at first +is almost her only language, indicates well the design of the author, +which is to paint love in its freshest, purest, vaguest, most adorable, +most disturbing, most irresistible--in a word, in its own color. It is +constantly a question of that joy which youth joined to beauty gives, of +the trouble and embarrassment that love causes in the innocence of early +years, in short, of all that is farthest from herself and her friend in +their late tie." + +But whatever tints her tender and delicate imaginings may have taken +from her own soul, Mme. de La Fayette has caught the eternal beauty of +a pure and loyal spirit rising above the mists of sense into the serene +air of a lofty Christian renunciation. + +The sad but triumphant close of her romance foreshadowed the swift +breaking up of her own pleasant life. In 1680, not long after the +appearance of the "Princesse de Cleves," La Rochefoucauld died, and +the song of her heart was changed to a miserere. "Mme. de La Fayette has +fallen from the clouds," says Mme. de Sevigne. "Where can she find +such a friend, such society, a like sweetness, charm, confidence, +consideration for her and her son?" A little later she writes from +The Rocks, "Mme. de La Fayette sends me word that she is more deeply +affected than she herself believed, being occupied with her health +and her children; but these cares have only rendered more sensible the +veritable sadness of her heart. She is alone in the world... The poor +woman cannot close the ranks so as to fill this place." + +The records of the thirteen years that remain to Mme. de La Fayette are +somber and melancholy. "Nothing can replace the blessings I have lost," +she says. Restlessly she seeks diversion in new plans. She enlarges her +house as her horizon diminishes; she finds occupation in the affairs of +Mme. Royale and interests herself in the marriage of the daughter of +her never-forgotten friend, the Princess Henrietta, with the heir to the +throne of Savoy. She writes a romance without the old vigor, occupies +herself with historic reminiscences, and takes a passing refuge in an +ardent affection for the young Mme. de Schomberg, which excites the +jealousy of some older friends. But the strongest link that binds her +to the world is the son whose career opens so brilliantly as a young +officer and for whom she secures an ample fortune and a fine marriage. +In this son and the establishment of a family centered all her hopes +and ambitions. She was spared the pain of seeing them vanish like the +"baseless fabric of a vision." The object of so many cares survived +her less than two years; her remaining son and the only person left to +represent her was the abbe who had so little care for her manuscripts +and her literary fame. A century later, through a collateral branch +of the family, the glory of the name was revived by the distinguished +general so dear to the American heart. It was in the less tangible realm +of the intellect that Mme. de La Fayette was destined to an unlooked-for +immortality. + +But in spite of these interests, the sense of loneliness and desolation +is always present. Her few letters give us occasional flashes of the old +spirit, but the burden of them is inexpressibly sad. Her sympathies and +associations led her toward a mild form of Jansenism, and as the evening +shadows darkened, her thoughts turned to fresh speculations upon the +destiny of the soul. She went with Mme. de Coulanges to visit Mme. de +La Sabliere, who was expiating the errors and follies of her life in +austere penitence at the Incurables. The devotion of this once gay and +brilliant woman, who had been so deeply tinged with the philosophy of +Descartes, touched her profoundly, and suggested a source of consolation +which she had never found. She sought the counsels of her confessor, who +did not spare her, and though she was never sustained by the ardor and +exaltation of the religieuse, her last days were not without peace and +a tranquil hope. To the end she remained a gracious, thoughtful, +self-poised, calmly-judging woman whose illusions never blinded her to +the simple facts of existence, though sometimes throwing over them a +transparent veil woven from the tender colors of her own heart. Above +the weariness and resignation of her last words written to Mme. de +Sevigne sounds the refrain of a life that counts among its crowning +gifts and graces a genius for friendship. + +"Alas, ma belle, all I have to tell you of my health is very bad; in a +word, I have repose neither night nor day, neither in body nor in mind. +I am no more a person either by one or the other. I perish visibly. +I must end when it pleases God, and I am submissive. BELIEVE ME, MY +DEAREST, YOU ARE THE PERSON IN THE WORLD WHOM I HAVE MOST TRULY LOVED." + +Mme. de La Fayette represents better than any other woman the social +and literary life of the last half of the seventeenth century. Mme. de +Sevigne had an individual genius that might have made itself equally +felt in any other period. Mme. de Maintenon, whom Roederer regards as +the true successor of Mme. de Rambouillet, was narrowed by personal +ambition, and by the limitations of her early life. Born in a prison, +reared in poverty, wife in name, but practically secretary and nurse +of a crippled, witty, and licentious poet over whose salon she presided +brilliantly; discreet and penniless widow, governess of the illegitimate +children of the king, adviser and finally wife of that king, friend of +Ninon, model of virtue, femme d'esprit, politician, diplomatist, and +devote--no fairy tale can furnish more improbable adventures and more +striking contrasts. But she was the product of exceptional circumstances +joined to an exceptional nature. It is true she put a final touch upon +the purity of manners which was so marked a feature of the Hotel de +Rambouillet, and for a long period gave a serious tone to the social +life of France. But she ruled through repression, and one is inclined +to accept the opinion of Sainte-Beuve that she does not represent the +distinctive social current of the time. In Mme. de La Fayette we find +its delicacy, its courtesy, its elegance, its intelligence, its critical +spirit, and its charm. + +In considering the great centers in which the fashionable, artistic, +literary, and scientific Paris of the seventeenth century found its +meeting ground, one is struck with the practical training given to its +versatile, flexible feminine minds. Women entered intelligently and +sympathetically into the interests of men, who, in turn, did not +reserve their best thoughts for the club or an after-dinner talk among +themselves. There was stimulus as well as diversity in the two modes of +thinking and being. Men became more courteous and refined, women more +comprehensive and clear. But conversation is the spontaneous overflow +of full minds, and the light play of the intellect is only possible on +a high level, when the current thought has become a part of the daily +life, so that a word suggests infinite perspectives to the swift +intelligence. It is not what we know, but the flavor of what we know, +that adds"sweetness and light" to social intercourse. With their rapid +intuition and instinctive love of pleasing, these French women were +quick to see the value of a ready comprehension of the subjects in which +clever men are most interested. It was this keen understanding, added to +the habit of utilizing what they thought and read, their ready facility +in grasping the salient points presented to them, a natural gift +of graceful expression, with a delicacy of taste and an exquisite +politeness which prevented them from being aggressive, that gave them +their unquestioned supremacy in the salons which made Paris for so long +a period the social capital of Europe. It was impossible that intellects +so plastic should not expand in such an atmosphere, and the result is +not difficult to divine. From Mme. de Rambouillet to Mme. de La Fayette +and Mme. de Sevigne, from these to Mme. de Stael and George Sand, there +is a logical sequence. The Saxon temperament, with a vein of La Bruyere, +gives us George Eliot. + +This new introduction of the feminine element into literature, which is +directly traceable to the salons of the seventeenth century, suggests +a point of special interest to the moralist. It may be assumed that, +whether through nature or a long process of evolution, the minds of +women as a class have a different coloring from the minds of men as a +class. Perhaps the best evidence of this lies in the literature of the +last two centuries, in which women have been an important factor, not +only through what they have done themselves, but through their reflex +influence. The books written by them have rapidly multiplied. Doubtless, +the excess of feeling is often unbalanced by mental or artistic +training; but even in the crude productions, which are by no means +confined to one sex, it may be remarked that women deal more with pure +affections and men with the coarser passions. A feminine Zola of any +grade of ability has not yet appeared. + +It is not, however, in literature of pure sentiment that the influence +of women has been most felt. It is true that, as a rule, they look +at the world from a more emotional standpoint than men, but both have +written of love, and for one Sappho there have been many Anacreons. +Mlle. de Scudery and Mme. de La Fayette did not monopolize the sentiment +of their time, but they refined and exalted it. The tender and exquisite +coloring of Mme. de Stael and George Sand had a worthy counterpart in +that of Chateaubriand or Lamartine. But it is in the moral purity, the +touch of human sympathy, the divine quality of compassion, the swift +insight into the soul pressed down by + + The heavy and weary weight + Of all this unintelligible world, + +that we trace the minds of women attuned to finer spiritual issues. This +broad humanity has vitalized modern literature. It is the penetrating +spirit of our century, which has been aptly called the Woman's Century. +We do not find it in the great literatures of the past. The Greek poets +give us types of tragic passions, of heroic virtues, of motherly and +wifely devotion, but woman is not recognized as a profound spiritual +force. This masculine literature, so perfect in form and plastic beauty, +so vigorous, so statuesque, so calm, and withal so cold, shines across +the centuries side by side with the feminine Christian ideal--twin +lights which have met in the world of today. It may be that from the +blending of the two, the crowning of a man's vigor with a woman's finer +insight, will spring the perfected flower of human thought. + +Robert Browning in his poem "By the Fireside" has said a fitting word: + + Oh, I must feel your brain prompt mine, + Your heart anticipate my heart. + You must be just before, in fine, + See and make me see, for your part, + New depths of the Divine! + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. SALONS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + +_Characteristics of the Eighteenth Century--Its Epicurean +Philosophy--Anecdote of Mme. du Deffand--the Salon an Engine of +Political Power--Great Influence of Women--Salons Defined Literary +Dinners--Etiquette of the Salons--An Exotic on American Soil._ + +The traits which strike us most forcibly in the lives and characters of +the women of the early salons, which colored their minds, ran through +their literary pastimes, and gave a distinctive flavor to their +conversation, are delicacy and sensibility. It was these qualities, +added to a decided taste for pleasures of the intellect, and an innate +social genius, that led them to revolt from the gross sensualism of +the court, and form, upon a new basis, a society that has given another +complexion to the last two centuries. The natural result was, at first, +a reign of sentiment that was often over-strained, but which represented +on the whole a reaction of morality and refinement. The wits and +beauties of the Salon Bleu may have committed a thousand follies, but +their chivalrous codes of honor and of manners, their fastidious tastes, +even their prudish affectations, were open though sometimes rather +bizarre tributes to the virtues that lie at the very foundation of +a well-ordered society. They had exalted ideas of the dignity of +womanhood, of purity, of loyalty, of devotion. The heroines of Mlle. +de Scudery, with their endless discourses upon the metaphysics of love, +were no doubt tiresome sometimes to the blase courtiers, as well as to +the critics; but they had their originals in living women who reversed +the common traditions of a Gabrielle and a Marion Delorme, who combined +with the intellectual brilliancy and fine courtesy of the Greek Aspasia +the moral graces that give so poetic a fascination to the Christian and +medieval types. Mme. de la Fayette painted with rare delicacy the old +struggle between passion and duty, but character triumphs over passion, +and duty is the final victor. In spite of the low standards of the age, +the ideal woman of society, as of literature, was noble, tender, modest, +pure, and loyal. + +But the eighteenth century brings new types to the surface. The +precieuses, with their sentimental theories and naive reserves, have +had their day. It is no longer the world of Mme. de Rambouillet that +confronts us with its chivalrous models, its refined platonism, and its +flavor of literature, but rather that of the epicurean Ninon, brilliant, +versatile, free, lax, skeptical, full of intrigue and wit, but without +moral sense of spiritual aspiration. Literary portraits and ethical +maxims have given place to a spicy mixture of scandal and philosophy, +humanitarian speculations and equivocal bons mots. It is piquant +and amusing, this light play of intellect, seasoned with clever and +sparkling wit, but the note of delicacy and sensibility is quite gone. +Society has divested itself of many crudities and affectations perhaps, +but it has grown as artificial and self-conscious as its rouged and +befeathered leaders. + +The woman who presided over these centers of fashion and intelligence +represent to us the genius of social sovereignty. We fall under the +glamour of the luminous but factitious atmosphere that surrounded them. +We are dazzled by the subtlety and clearness of their intellect, the +brilliancy of their wit. Their faults are veiled by the smoke of the +incense we burn before them, or lost in the dim perspective. It is +fortunate, perhaps, for many of our illusions, that the golden age, +which is always receding, is seen at such long range that only the +softly colored outlines are visible. Men and women are transfigured in +the rosy light that rests on historic heights as on far-off mountain +tops. But if we bring them into closer view, and turn on the pitiless +light of truth, the aureole vanishes, a thousand hidden defects are +exposed, and our idol stands out hard and bare, too often divested of +its divinity and its charm. + +To do justice to these women, we must take the point of view of an age +that was corrupt to the core. It is needless to discuss here the merits +of the stormy, disenchanting eighteenth century, which was the mother +of our own, and upon which the world is likely to remain hopelessly +divided. But whatever we may think of its final outcome, it can hardly +be denied that this period, which in France was so powerful in ideas, so +active in thought, so teeming with intelligence, so rich in philosophy, +was poor in faith, bankrupt in morals, without religion, without poetry, +and without imagination. The divine ideals of virtue and renunciation +were drowned in a sea of selfishness and materialism. The austere +devotion of Pascal was out of fashion. The spiritual teachings of +Bossuet and Fenelon represented the out-worn creeds of an age that +was dead. It was Voltaire who gave the tone, and even Voltaire was +not radical enough for many of these iconoclasts. "He is a bigot and a +deist," exclaimed a feminine disciple of d'Holbach's atheism. The gay, +witty, pleasure-loving abbe, who derided piety, defied morality, was +the pet of the salon, and figured in the worst scandals, was a fair +representative of the fashionable clergy who had no attribute of +priesthood but the name, and clearly justified the sneers of the +philosophers. Tradition had given place to private judgment and in its +first reaction private judgment knew no law but its own caprices. The +watchword of intellectual freedom was made to cover universal license, +and clever sophists constructed theories to justify the mad carnival of +vice and frivolity. "As soon as one does a bad action, one never fails +to make a bad maxim," said the clever Marquise de Crequi. "As soon as a +school boy has his love affairs, he wishes no more to say his prayers; +and when a woman wrongs her husband, she tries to believe no more in +God." + +The fact that this brilliant but heartless and epicurean world was +tempered with intellect and taste changed its color but not its moral +quality. Talent turned to intrigue, and character was the toy of the +scheming and flexible brain. The maxims of La Rochefoucauld were the +rule of life. Wit counted for everything, the heart for nothing. The +only sins that could not be pardoned were stupidity and awkwardness. +"Bah! He has only revealed every one's secret," said Mme. du Defand to +an acquaintance who censured Helvetius for making selfishness the basis +of all human actions. To some one who met this typical woman of her +time, in the gay salon of Mme. de Marchais, and condoled with her upon +the death of her lifelong friend and lover, Pont de Veyle, she quietly +replied, "Alas! He died this evening at six o'clock; otherwise you would +not see me here." "My friend fell ill, I attended him; he died, and +I dissected him" was the remark of a wit on reading her satirical +pen portrait of the Marquise du Chatelet. This cold skepticism, keen +analysis, and undisguised heartlessness strike the keynote of the +century which was socially so brilliant, intellectually so fruitful, and +morally so weak. + +The liberty and complaisance of the domestic relations were complete. It +is true there were examples of conjugal devotion, for the gentle human +affections never quite disappear in any atmosphere; but the fact that +they were considered worthy of note sufficiently indicates the drift +of the age. In the world of fashion and of form there was not even a +pretense of preserving the sanctity of marriage, if the chronicles of +the time are to be credited. It was simply a commercial affair which +united names and fortunes, continued the glory of the families, +replenished exhausted purses, and gave freedom to women. If love entered +into it at all, it was by accident. This superfluous sentiment was +ridiculed, or relegated to the bourgeoisie, to whom it was left to +preserve the tradition of household virtues. Every one seems to have +accepted the philosophy of the irrepressible Ninon, who "returned thanks +to God every evening for her esprit, and prayed him every morning to be +preserved from follies of the heart." If a young wife was modest or +shy, she was the object of unflattering persiflage. If she betrayed her +innocent love for her husband, she was not of the charmed circle of wit +and good tone which frowned upon so vulgar a weakness, and laughed at +inconvenient scruples. + +"Indeed," says a typical husband of the period, "I cannot conceive how, +in the barbarous ages, one had the courage to wed. The ties of marriage +were a chain. Today you see kindness, liberty, peace reign in the bosom +of families. If husband and wife love each other, very well; they live +together; they are happy. If they cease to love, they say so honestly, +and return to each other the promise of fidelity. They cease to be +lovers; they are friends. That is what I call social manners, gentle +manners." This reign of the senses is aptly illustrated by the epitaph +which the gay, voluptuous, and spirtuelle Marquise de Boufflers wrote +for herself: + + Ci-git dans une paix profonde + Cette Dame de Volupte + Qui, pour plus grande surete, + Fit son paradis de ce monde. + +"Courte et bonne," said the favorite daughter of the Regent, in the same +spirit. + +It is against such a background that the women who figure so prominently +in the salons are outlined. Such was the air they breathed, the spirit +they imbibed. That it was fatal to the finer graces of character goes +without saying. Doubtless, in quiet and secluded nooks, there were +many human wild flowers that had not lost their primitive freshness and +delicacy, but they did not flourish in the withering atmosphere of +the great world. The type in vogue savored of the hothouse. With its +striking beauty of form and tropical richness of color, it had no +sweetness, no fragrance. Many of these women we can only consider on the +worldly and intellectual side. Sydney Smith has aptly characterized them +as "women who violated the common duties of life, and gave very pleasant +little suppers." But standing on the level of a time in which their +faults were mildly censured, if at all, their characteristic gifts shine +out with marvelous splendor. It is from this standpoint alone that we +can present them, drawing the friendly mantle of silence over grave +weaknesses and fatal errors. + +In this century, in which women have so much wider scope, when they may +paint, carve, act, sing, write, enter professional life, or do whatever +talent and inclination dictate, without loss of dignity or prestige, +unless they do it ill,--and perhaps even this exception is a trifle +superfluous,--it is difficult to understand fully, or estimate +correctly, a society in which the best feminine intellect was centered +upon the art of entertaining and of wielding an indirect power through +the minds of men. These Frenchwomen had all the vanity that lies at +the bottom of the Gallic character, but when the triumphs of youth were +over, the only legitimate path to individual distinction was that of +social influence. This was attained through personal charm, supplemented +by more or less cleverness, or through the gift of creating a society +that cast about them an illusion of talent of which they were often only +the reflection. To these two classes belong the queens of the salons. +But the most famous of them only carried to the point of genius a talent +that was universal. + +In its best estate a brilliant social life is essentially an external +one. Its charm lies largely in the superficial graces, in the facile and +winning manners, the ready tact, the quick intelligence, the rare and +perishable gifts of conversation--in the nameless trifles which are +elusive as shadows and potent as light. It is the way of putting things +that tells, rather than the value of the things themselves. This world +of draperies and amenities, of dinners and conversaziones, of epigrams, +coquetries, and sparkling trivialities in the Frenchwoman's milieu. It +has little in common with the inner world that surges forever behind +and beneath it; little sympathy with inconvenient ideals and exalted +sentiments. The serious and earnest soul to which divine messages have +been whispered in hours of solitude finds its treasures unheeded, its +language unspoken here. The cares, the burdens, the griefs that weigh +so heavily on the great heart of humanity are banished from this social +Eden. The Frenchman has as little love for the somber side of life as +the Athenian, who veiled every expression of suffering. "Joy marks the +force of the intellect," said the pleasure-loving Ninon. It is this +peculiar gift of projecting themselves into a joyous atmosphere, of +treating even serious subjects in a piquant and lively fashion, of +dwelling upon the pleasant surface of things, that has made the French +the artists, above all others, of social life. The Parisienne selects +her company, as a skillful leader forms his orchestra, with a fine +instinct of harmony; no single instrument dominates, but every member is +an artist in his way, adding his touch of melody or color in the fitting +place. She aims, perhaps unconsciously, at a poetic ideal which +shall express the best in life and thought, divested of the rude and +commonplace, untouched by sorrow or passion, and free from personality. + +But the representative salons, which have left a permanent mark upon +their time, and a memory that does not seem likely to die, were no +longer simply centers of refined and intellectual amusement. The moral +and literary reaction of the seventeenth century was one of the great +social and political forces of the eighteenth. The salon had become a +vast engine of power, an organ of public opinion, like the modern +press. Clever and ambitious women had found their instrument and +their opportunity. They had long since learned that the homage paid to +weakness is illusory; that the power of beauty is short-lived. With none +of the devotion which had made the convent the time-honored refuge +of tender and exalted souls, finding little solace in the domestic +affections which played so small a role in their lives, they turned the +whole force of their clear and flexible minds to this new species of +sovereignty. Their keenness of vision, their consummate skill in +the adaptation of means to ends, their knowledge of the world, their +practical intelligence, their instinct of pleasing, all fitted them for +the part they assumed. They distinctly illustrated the truth that "our +ideal is not out of ourselves, but in ourselves wisely modified." The +intellect of these women was rarely the dupe of the emotions. Their +clearness was not befogged by sentiment, nor, it may be added, were +their characters enriched by it. "The women of the eighteenth century +loved with their minds and not with their hearts," said the Abbe +Galiani. The very absence of the qualities so essential to the highest +womanly character, according to the old poetic types, added to their +success. To be simple and true is to forget often to consider effects. +Spontaneity is not apt to be discriminating, and the emotions are not +safe guides to worldly distinction. It is not the artist who feels the +most keenly, who sways men the most powerfully; it is the one who has +most perfectly mastered the art of swaying men. Self-sacrifice and a +lofty sense of duty find their rewards in the intangible realm of +the spirit, but they do not find them in a brilliant society whose +foundations are laid in vanity and sensualism. "The virtues, though +superior to the sentiments, are not so agreeable," said Mme. du Deffand; +and she echoed the spirit of an age of which she was one of the most +striking representatives. To be agreeable was the cardinal aim in the +lives of these women. To this end they knew how to use their talents, +and they studied, to the minutest shade, their own limitations. They +had the gift of the general who marshals his forces with a swift eye +for combination and availability. To this quality was added more or less +mental brilliancy, or, what is equally essential, the faculty of calling +out the brilliancy of others; but their education was rarely profound +or even accurate. To an abbe who wished to dedicate a grammar to Mme. +Geoffrin she replied: "To me? Dedicate a grammar to me? Why, I do not +even know how to spell." Even Mme. du Deffand, whom Sainte Beuve ranks +next to Voltaire as the purest classic of the epoch in prose, says +of herself, "I do not know a word of grammar; my manner of expressing +myself is always the result of chance, independent of all rule and all +art." + +But it is not to be supposed that women who were the daily and +lifelong companions and confidantes of men like Fontenelle, d'Alembert, +Montesquieu, Helvetius, and Marmontel were deficient in a knowledge of +books, though this was always subservient to a knowledge of life. It was +a means, not an end. When the salon was at the height of its power, it +was not yet time for Mme. de Stael; and, with rare exceptions, those who +wrote were not marked, or their literary talent was so overshadowed by +their social gifts as to be unnoted. Their writings were no measure of +their abilities. Those who wrote for amusement were careful to disclaim +the title of bel esprit, and their works usually reached the public +through accidental channels. Mme. de Lambert herself had too keen an +eye for consideration to pose as an author, but it is with an accent of +regret at the popular prejudice that she says of Mme. Dacier, "She knows +how to associate learning with the amenities; for at present modesty is +out of fashion; there is no more shame for vices, and women blush only +for knowledge." + +But if they did not write, they presided over the mint in which books +were coined. They were familiar with theories and ideas at their +fountain source. Indeed the whole literature of the period pays its +tribute to their intelligence and critical taste. "He who will write +with precision, energy, and vigor only," said Marmontel, "may live with +men alone; but he who wishes for suppleness in his style, for amenity, +and for that something which charms and enchants, will, I believe, do +well to live with women. When I read that Pericles sacrificed every +morning to the Graces, I understand by it that every day Pericles +breakfasted with Aspasia." This same author was in the habit of reading +his tales in the salon, and noting their effect. He found a happy +inspiration in "the most beautiful eyes in the world, swimming in +tears;" but he adds, "I well perceived the cold and feeble passages, +which they passed over in silence, as well as those where I had mistaken +the word, the tone of nature, or the just shade of truth." He refers to +the beautiful, witty, but erring and unfortunate Mme. de la Popeliniere, +to whom he read his tragedy, as the best of all his critics. "Her +corrections," he said, "struck me as so many rays of light." "A point of +morals will be no better discussed in a society of philosophers than in +that of a pretty woman of Paris," said Rousseau. This constant habit of +reducing thoughts to a clear and salient form was the best school for +aptness and ready expression. To talk wittily and well, or to lead +others to talk wittily and well, was the crowning gift of these women. +This evanescent art was the life and soul of the salons, the magnet +which attracted the most brilliant of the French men of letters, who +were glad to discuss safely and at their ease many subjects which +the public censorship made it impossible to write about. They found +companions and advisers in women, consulted their tastes, sought +their criticism, courted their patronage, and established a sort of +intellectual comradeship that exists to the same extent in no country +outside of France. Its model may be found in the limited circle that +gathered about Aspasia in the old Athenian days. + +It is perhaps this habit of intellectual companionship that, more than +any other single thing, accounts for the practical cleverness of the +Frenchwomen and the conspicuous part they have played in the political +as well as social life of France. Nowhere else are women linked to +the same degree with the success of men. There are few distinguished +Frenchmen with whose fame some more or less gifted woman is not closely +allied. Montaigne and Mlle. de Gournay, La Rochefoucauld and Mme. de +La Fayette, d'Alembert and Mlle. de Lespinasse, Chateaubriand and Mme. +Recamier, Joubert and Mme. de Beaumont--these are only a few of the +well-known and unsullied friendships that suggest themselves out of a +list that might be extended indefinitely. The social instincts of +the French, and the fact that men and women met on a common plane of +intellectual life, made these friendships natural; that they excited +little comment and less criticism made them possible. + +The result was that from the quiet and thoughtful Marquise de Lambert, +who was admitted to have made half of the Academicians, to the clever +but less scrupulous Mme. de Pompadour, who had to be reckoned with in +every political change in Europe, women were everywhere the power behind +the throne. No movement was carried through without them. "They form a +kind of republic," said Montesquieu, "whose members, always active, aid +and serve one another. It is a new state within a state; and whoever +observes the action of those in power, if he does not know the women who +govern them, is like a man who sees the action of a machine but does not +know its secret springs." Mme. de Tenein advised Marmontel, before all +things, to cultivate the society of women, if he wished to succeed. It +is said that both Diderot and Thomas, two of the most brilliant thinkers +of their time, failed of the fame they merited, through their neglect +to court the favor of women. Bolingbroke, then an exile in Paris, with +a few others, formed a club of men for the discussion of literary and +political questions. While it lasted it was never mentioned by women. +It was quietly ignored. Cardinal Fleury considered it dangerous to the +State, and suppressed it. At the same time, in the salon of Mme. de +Tenein, the leaders of French thought were safely maturing the theories +which Montesquieu set forth in his "Esprit des Lois," the first open +attack on absolute monarchy, the forerunner of Rousseau, and the germ of +the Revolution. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + +But the salons were far from being centers of "plain living and high +thinking." "Supper is one of the four ends of man," said Mme. du +Deffand; and it must be admitted that the great doctrine of human +equality was rather luxuriously cradled. The supreme science of the +Frenchwomen was a knowledge of men. Understanding their tastes, their +ambitions, their interests, their vanities, and their weaknesses, they +played upon this complicated human instrument with the skill of an +artist who knows how to touch the lightest note, to give the finest +shade of expression, to bring out the fullest harmony. In their efforts +to raise social life to the most perfect and symmetrical proportions, +the pleasures of sense and the delicate illusions of color were not +forgotten. They were as noted for their good cheer, for their attention +to the elegances that strike the eye, the accessories that charm the +taste, as for their intelligence, their tact, and their conversation. + +But one must look for the power and the fascination of the French salons +in their essential spirit and the characteristics of the Gallic race, +rather than in any definite and tangible form. The word simply suggests +habitual and informal gatherings of men and women of intelligence and +good breeding in the drawing-room, for conversation and amusement. The +hostess who opened her house for these assemblies selected her guests +with discrimination, and those who had once gained an entree were always +welcome. In studying the character of the noted salons, one is struck +with a certain unity that could result only from natural growth about +a nucleus of people bound together by many ties of congeniality and +friendship. Society, in its best sense, does not signify a multitude, +nor can a salon be created on commercial principles. This spirit of +commercialism, so fatal to modern social life, was here conspicuously +absent. It was not at all a question of debit and credit, of formal +invitations to be given and returned. Personal values were regarded. +The distinctions of wealth were ignored and talent, combined with the +requisite tact, was, to a certain point, the equivalent of rank. If +rivalries existed, they were based upon the quality of the guests rather +than upon material display. But the modes of entertainment were as +varied as the tastes and abilities of the women who presided. Many of +the well-known salons were open daily. Sometimes there were suppers, +which came very much into vogue after the petits soupers of the regent. +The Duchesse de Choiseul, during the ministry of her husband, gave a +supper every evening excepting on Friday and Sunday. At a quarter before +ten the steward glanced through the crowded rooms, and prepared the +table for all who were present. The Monday suppers at the Temple were +thronged. On other days a more intimate circle gathered round the +tables, and the ladies served tea after the English fashion. A few women +of rank and fortune imitated these princely hospitalities, but it was +the smaller coteries which presented the most charming and distinctive +side of French society. It was not the luxurious salon of the Duchesse +du Maine, with its whirl of festivities and passion for esprit, nor +that of the Temple, with its brilliant and courtly, but more or less +intellectual, atmosphere; nor that of the clever and critical Marechale +de Luxembourg, so elegant, so witty, so noted in its day--which left the +most permanent traces and the widest fame. It was those presided over +by women of lesser rank and more catholic sympathies, of whom Voltaire +aptly said that "the decline of their beauty revealed the dawn of their +intellect;" women who had the talent, tact, and address to gather about +them a circle of distinguished men who have crowned them with a luminous +ray from their own immortality. The names of Mme. de Lambert, Mme. de +Tencin, Mme. Geoffrin, Mme. du Deffand, Mme. Necker, Mme. de Stael, and +others of lesser note, call up visions of a society which the world is +not likely to see repeated. + +Not the least among the attractions of this society was its charming +informality. A favorite custom in the literary and philosophical salons +was to give dinners, at an early hour, two or three times a week. In the +evening a larger company assembled without ceremony. A popular man +of letters, so inclined, might dine Monday and Wednesday with Mme. +Geoffrin, Tuesday with Mme. Helvetius, Friday with Mme. Necker, Sunday +and Thursday with Mme. d'Holbach, and have ample time to drop into other +salons afterward, passing an hour or so, perhaps, before going to the +theater, in the brilliant company that surrounded Mlle. de Lespinasse, +and, very likely, supping elsewhere later. At many of these gatherings +he would be certain to find readings, recitations, comedies, music, +games, or some other form of extemporized amusement. The popular mania +for esprit, for literary lions, for intellectual diversions ran through +the social world, as the craze for clubs and culture, poets and parlor +readings, musicales and amateur theatricals, runs through the society of +today. It had numberless shades and gradations, with the usual train of +pretentious follies which in every age furnish ample material for +the pen of the satirist, but it was a spontaneous expression of the +marvelously quickened taste for things of the intellect. The woman who +improvised a witty verse, invented a proverb, narrated a story, sang +a popular air, or acted a part in a comedy entered with the same easy +grace into the discussion of the last political problem, or listened +with the subtlest flattery to the new poem, essay, or tale of the +aspiring young author, whose fame and fortune perhaps hung upon her +smile. In the musical and artistic salon of Mme. de la Popeliniere +the succession of fetes, concerts, and receptions seems to have been +continuous. On Sunday there was a mass in the morning, afterward a grand +dinner, at five o'clock a light repast, at nine a supper, and later a +musicale. One is inclined to wonder if there was ever any retirement, +any domesticity in this life so full of movement and variety. + +But it was really the freedom, wit, and brilliancy of the conversation +that constituted the chief attraction of the salons. Men were in the +habit of making the daily round of certain drawing rooms, just as they +drop into clubs in our time, sure of more or less pleasant discussion on +whatever subject was uppermost at the moment, whether it was literature, +philosophy, art, politics, music, the last play, or the latest word +of their friends. The talk was simple, natural, without heat, without +aggressive egotism, animated with wit and repartee, glancing upon the +surface of many things, and treating all topics, grave or gay, with +the lightness of touch, the quick responsiveness that make the charm of +social intercourse. + +The unwritten laws that governed this brilliant world were drawn from +the old ideas of chivalry, upon which the etiquette of the early salons +was founded. The fine morality and gentle virtues which were the bases +of these laws had lost their force in the eighteenth century, but the +manners which grew out of them had passed into a tradition. If morals +were in reality not pure, nor principles severe, there was at least +the vanity of posing as models of good breeding. Honor was a religion; +politeness and courtesy were the current, though by no means always +genuine, coin of unselfishness and amiability; the amenities stood +in the place of an ethical code. Egotism, ill temper, disloyalty, +ingratitude, and scandal were sins against taste, and spoiled the +general harmony. Evil passions might exist, but it was agreeable to hide +them, and enmities slept under a gracious smile. noblesse OBLIGE was the +motto of these censors of manners; and as it is perhaps a Gallic trait +to attach greater importance to reputation than to character, this +sentiment was far more potent than conscience. Vice in many veiled forms +might be tolerated, but that which called itself good society barred +its doors against those who violated the canons of good taste, which +recognize at least the outward semblance of many amiable virtues. +Sincerity certainly was not one of these virtues; but no one was +deceived, as it was perfectly well understood that courteous forms +meant little more than the dress which may or may not conceal a physical +defect, but is fit and becoming. It was not best to inquire too closely +into character and motives, so long as appearances were fair and +decorous. How far the individual may be affected by putting on the garb +of qualities and feelings that do not exist may be a question for the +moralist; but this conventional untruth has its advantages, not only in +reducing to a minimum the friction of social machinery, and subjecting +the impulses to the control of the will, but in the subtle influence +of an ideal that is good and true, however far one may in reality fall +short of it. + +Imagine a society composed of a leisure class with more or less +intellectual tastes; men eminent in science and letters; men less +eminent, whose success depended largely upon their social gifts, and +clever women supremely versed in the art of pleasing, who were the +intelligent complements of these men; add a universal talent for +conversation, a genius for the amenities of social life, habits of daily +intercourse, and manners formed upon an ideal of generosity, amiability, +loyalty, and urbanity; consider, also, the fact that the journals and +the magazines, which are so conspicuous a feature of modern life, were +practically unknown; that the salons were centers in which the affairs +of the world were discussed, its passing events noted--and the power of +these salons may be to some extent comprehended. + +The reason, too, why it is idle to dream of reproducing them today on +American soil will be readily seen. The forms may be repeated, but the +vitalizing spirit is not there. We have no leisure class that finds its +occupation in this pleasant daily converse. Our feverish civilization +has not time for it. We sit in our libraries and scan the news of the +world, instead of gathering it in the drawing rooms of our friends. +Perhaps we read and think more, but we talk less, and conversation is +a relaxation rather than an art. The ability to think aloud, easily and +gracefully, is not eminently an Anglo-Saxon gift, though there are many +individual exceptions to this limitation. Our social life is largely a +form, a whirl, a commercial relation, a display, a duty, the result of +external accretion, not of internal growth. It is not in any sense a +unity, nor an expression of our best intellectual life; this seeks other +channels. Men are immersed in business and politics, and prefer the +easy, less exacting atmosphere of the club. The woman who aspires to +hold a salon is confronted at the outset by this formidable rival. +She is a queen without a kingdom, presiding over a fluctuating circle +without homogeneity, and composed largely of women--a fact in itself +fatal to the true esprit de societe. It is true we have our literary +coteries, but they are apt to savor too much of the library; we +take them too seriously, and bring into them too strong a flavor +of personality. We find in them, as a rule, little trace of the +spontaneity, the variety, the wit, the originality, the urbanity, +the polish, that distinguished the French literary salons of the last +century. Even in their own native atmosphere, the salons exist no longer +as recognized institutions. This perfected flower of a past civilization +has faded and fallen, as have all others. The salon in its widest sense, +and in some modified form, may always constitute a feature of French +life, but the type has changed, and its old glory has forever departed. +In a foreign air, even in its best days, it could only have been an +exotic, flourishing feebly, and lacking both color and fragrance. As +a copy of past models it is still less likely to be a living force. +Society, like government, takes its spirit and its vitality from its own +soil. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. AN ANTECHAMBER OF THE ACADEMIE FRANCAISE + +_The Marquise de Lambert--Her "Bureau d'Esprit"--Fontenelle--Advice +to her Son--Wise Thoughts on the Education of Women--Her love of +Consideration--Her Generosoty--Influence of Women upon the Academy._ + +While the gay suppers of the regent were giving a new but by no means +desirable tone to the great world of Paris, and chasing away the last +vestiges of the stately decorum that marked the closing days of Louis +XIV, and Mme. de Maintenon, there was one quiet drawing room which still +preserved the old traditions. The Marquise de Lambert forms a connecting +link between the salons of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, +leaning to the side of the latter, intellectually, but retaining much of +the finer morality that distinguished the best life of the former. Her +attitude towards the disorders of the regency was similar to that which +Mme. de Rambouillet had held towards the profligate court of Henry IV, +though her salon never attained the vogue of its model. It lacked a +certain charm of youth and freshness perhaps, but it was one of the few +in which gambling was not permitted, and in which conversation had not +lost its serious and critical flavor. + +If Mme. de Lambert were living today she would doubtless figure openly +as an author. Her early tastes pointed clearly in that direction. She +was inclined to withdraw from the amusements of her age, and to pass her +time in reading, or in noting down the thoughts that pleased her. The +natural bent of her mind was towards moral reflections. In this quality +she resembled Mme. de Sable, but she was a woman of greater breadth and +originality, though less fine and exclusive. She wrote much in later +life on educational themes, for the benefit of her children and for her +own diversion; but she yielded to the prejudices of her age against the +woman author, and her works were given to the world only through the +medium of friends to whom she had read or lent them. "Women," she said, +"should have towards the sciences a modesty almost as sensitive +as towards vices." But in spite of her studied observance of the +conventional limits which tradition still assigned to her sex, her +writings suggest much more care than is usually bestowed upon the +amusement of an idle hour. If, like many other women of her time, she +wrote only for her friends, she evidently doubted their discretion in +the matter of secrecy. + +As the child who inherited the rather formidable name of Anne Theresa +de Marguenat de Coucelles was born during the last days of the Hotel +de Rambouillet, she doubtless cherished many illusions regarding this +famous salon. Its influence was more or less apparent when the time came +to open one of her own. Her father was a man of feeble intellect, who +died early; but her mother, a woman more noted for beauty than for +decorum, was afterward married to Bachaumont, a well-known bel esprit, +who appreciated the gifts of the young girl, and brought her within a +circle of wits who did far more towards forming her impressible mind +than her light and frivolous mother had done. She was still very young +when she became the wife of the Marquis de Lambert, an officer of +distinction, to whose interests she devoted her talents and her ample +fortune. The exquisitely decorated Hotel Lambert, on the Ile Saint +Louis, still retains much of its old splendor, though the finest +masterpieces of Lebrun and Lesueur which ornamented its walls have found +their way to the Louvre. "It is a home made for a sovereign who would +be a philosopher," wrote Voltaire to Frederick the Great. In these +magnificent salons, Mme. de Lambert, surrounded by every luxury that +wealth and taste could furnish, entertained a distinguished company. She +carried her lavish hospitalities also to Luxembourg, where she adorned +the position of her husband, who was governor of that province for +a short period before his death in 1686. After this event, she was +absorbed for some years in settling his affairs, which were left in +great disorder, and in protecting the fortunes of her two children. +This involved her in long and vexatious lawsuits which she seems to have +conducted with admirable ability. "There are so few great fortunes that +are innocent," she writes to her son, "that I pardon your ancestors +for not leaving you one. I have done what I could to put in order our +affairs, in which there is left to women only the glory of economy." It +was not until the closing years of her life, from 1710 to 1733, that her +social influence was at its height. She was past sixty, at an age when +the powers of most women are on the wane, when her real career began. +She fitted up luxurious apartments in the Palais Mazarin, employing +artists like Watteau upon the decorations, and expending money as +lavishly as if she had been in the full springtide of life, instead of +the golden autumn. Then she gathered about her a choice and lettered +society, which seemed to be a world apart, a last revival of the genius +of the seventeenth century, and quite out of the main drift of the +period. "She was born with much talent," writes one of her friends; "she +cultivated it by assiduous reading; but the most beautiful flower in her +crown was a noble and luminous simplicity, of which, at sixty years, she +took it into her head to divest herself. She lent herself to the public, +associated with the Academicians, and established at her house a bureau +d'esprit." Twice a week she gave dinners, which were as noted for the +cuisine as for the company, and included, among others, the best of the +forty Immortals. Here new works were read or discussed, authors talked +of their plans, and candidates were proposed for vacant chairs in the +Academy. "The learned and the lettered formed the dominant element," +says a critic of the time. "They dined at noon, and the rest of the day +was passed in conversations, in readings, in literary and scientific +discussions. No card tables; it was in ready wit that each one paid his +contribution." Ennui never came to shed its torpors over these reunions, +of which the Academy furnished the most distinguished guests, in company +with grands seigneurs eager to show themselves as worthy by intelligence +as by rank to play a role in these gatherings of the intellectual elite. +Fontenelle was the presiding genius of this salon, and added to its +critical and literary spirit a tinge of philosophy. This gallant savant, +who was adored in society as "a man of rare and exquisite conversation," +has left many traces of himself here. No one was so sparkling in +epigram; no one talked so beautifully of love, of which he knew nothing; +and no one talked to delightfully of science, of which he knew a great +deal. But he thought that knowledge needed a seasoning of sentiment to +make it palatable to women. In his "Pluralite des Mondes," a singular +melange of science and sentiment, which he had written some years before +and dedicated to a daughter of the gay and learned Mme. de La Sabliere, +he talks about the stars, to la belle marquise, like a lover; but his +delicate flatteries are the seasoning of serious truths. It was the +first attempt to offer science sugar-coated, and suggests the character +of this coterie, which prided itself upon a discreet mingling of +elevated thought with decorous gaiety. The world moves. Imagine a female +undergraduate of Harvard or Columbia taking her astronomy diluted with +sentiment! + +President Henault, the life-long friend of Mme. du Deffand, whose light +criticism of a pure-minded woman might be regarded as rather flattering +than otherwise, says: "It was apparent that Mme. de Lambert touched upon +the time of the Hotel de Rambouillet; she was a little affected, and had +not the force to overstep the limits of the prude and the precieuse. Her +salon was the rendevous of celebrated men.... In the evening the scenery +changed as well as the actors. A more elegant world assembled at +the suppers. The Marquise took pleasure in receiving people who were +agreeable to each other. Her tone, however, did not vary, and she +preached la belle galanterie to some who went a little beyond it. I +was of the two parties; I dogmatized in the morning and sang in the +evening." The two eminent Greek Scholars, La Motte and Mme. Dacier, held +spirited discussions on the merits of Homer, which came near ending in +permanent ill-feeling, but the amiable hostess gave a dinner for them, +"they drank to the health of the poet, and all was forgotten." The war +between the partizans of the old and the new was as lively then as it +is today. "La Motte and Fontenelle prefer the moderns," said the +caustic Mme. du Deffand; "but the ancients are dead, and the moderns +are themselves." The names of Sainte-Aulaire, de Sacy, Mairan, President +Henault, and others equally scholarly and witty, suffice to indicate the +quality of the conversation, which treated lightly and gracefully of +the most serious things. The Duchesse du Maine and her clever companion, +Mlle. de Launay were often among the guests; also the beautiful and +brilliant Mme. de Caylus, a niece of Mme. de Maintenon, whom some +poetical critic has styled "the last flower of the seventeenth +century." Sainte-Aulaire, tired of the perpetual excitement at Sceaux, +characterized this salon by a witty quatrain: + + Je suis las de l'esprit, il me met en courroux, + Il me renverse la cervelle; + Lambert, je viens chercher un asile chez vous, + Entre La Motte et Fontenelle. + +The wits of the day launched many a shaft of satire against it, as they +had against the Hotel de Rambouillet a century earlier; but it was +an intellectual center of great influence, and was regarded as the +sanctuary of old manners as well as the asylum of new liberties. Its +decorous character gave it the epithet of "very respectable;" but this +eminently respectable company, which represented the purest taste of the +time, often included Adrienne Lecouvreur, who was much more remarkable +for talent than for respectability. We have a direct glimpse of it +through the pen of d'Artenson: + +"I have just met with a very grievous loss in the death of the Marquise +de Lambert" (he writes in 1733). "For fifteen years I have been one of +her special friends, and she has done me the favor of inviting me to her +house, where it is an honor to be received. I dined there regularly on +Wednesday, which was one of her days.... She was rich, and made a good +and amiable use of her wealth, for the benefit of her friends, and above +all for the unfortunate. A pupil of Bachaumont, having frequented only +the society of people of the world, and of the highest intelligence, she +knew no other passion than a constant and platonic tenderness." + +The quality of character and intellect which gave Mme. de Lambert so +marked an influence, we find in her own thoughts on a great variety of +subjects. She gives us the impression of a woman altogether sensible +and judicious, but not without a certain artificial tone. Her +well-considered philosophy of life had an evident groundwork of ambition +and worldly wisdom, which appears always in her advice to her children. +She counsels her son to aim high and believe himself capable of great +things. "Too much modesty," she says, "is a languor of the soul, which +prevents it from taking flight and carrying itself rapidly towards +glory"--a suggestion that would be rather superfluous in this +generation. Again, she advises him to seek the society of his superiors, +in order to accustom himself to respect and politeness. "With equals +one grows negligent; the mind falls asleep." But she does not regard +superiority as an external thing, and says very wisely, "It is merit +which should separate you from people, not dignity or pride." By +"people" she indicates all those who think meanly and commonly. "The +court is full of them," she adds. Her standards of honor are high, and +her sentiments of humanity quite in the vein of the coming age. She +urges her daughter to treat her servants with kindness. "One of the +ancients says they should be regarded as unfortunate friends. Think that +humanity and Christianity equalize all." + +Her criticisms on the education of women are of especial interest. +Behind her conventional tastes and her love of consideration she has a +clear perception of facts and an appreciation of unfashionable truths. +She recognizes the superiority of her sex in matters of taste and in the +enjoyment of "serious pleasures which make only the MIND LAUGH and +do not trouble the heart" She reproaches men with "spoiling the +dispositions nature has given to women, neglecting their education, +filling their minds with nothing solid, and destining them solely to +please, and to please only by their graces or their vices." But she had +not always the courage of her convictions, and it was doubtless quite as +much her dislike of giving voice to unpopular opinions as her aversion +to the publicity of authorship, that led her to buy the entire edition +of her "Reflexions sur les Femmes," which was published without her +consent. + +One of her marked traits was moderation. "The taste is spoiled by +amusements," she writes. "One becomes so accustomed to ardent pleasures +that one cannot fall back upon simple ones. We should fear great +commotions of the soul, which prepare ennui and disgust." This wise +thought suggests the influence of Fontenelle, who impressed himself +strongly upon the salons of the first half of the century. His calm +philosophy is distinctly reflected in the character of Mme. de Lambert, +also in that of Mme. Geoffrin, with whom he was on very intimate terms. +It is said that this poet, critic, bel esprit, and courtly favorite, +whom Rousseau calls "the daintiest pedant in the world," was never +swayed by any emotion whatever. He never laughed, only smiled; never +wept; never praised warmly, though he did say pretty things to women; +never hurried; was never angry; never suffered, and was never moved by +suffering. "He had the gout," says one of his critics, "but no pain; +only a foot wrapped in cotton. He put it on a footstool; that was all." +It is perhaps fair to present, as the other side of the medallion, the +portrait drawn by the friendly hand of Adrienne LeCouvreur. "The charms +of his intellect often veiled its essential qualities. Unique of +his kind, he combines all that wins regard and respect. Integrity, +rectitude, equity compose his character; an imagination lively and +brilliant, turns fine and delicate, expressions new and always +happy ornament it. A heart pure, actions clear, conduct uniform, and +everywhere principles.... Exact in friendship, scrupulous in love; +nowhere failing in the attributes of a gentleman. Suited to intercourse +the most delicate, though the delight of savants; modest in his +conversation, simple in his actions, his superiority is evident, but he +never makes one feel it." He lived a century, apparently because it +was too much trouble to die. When the weight of years made it too much +trouble to live, he simply stopped. "I do not suffer, my friends, but I +feel a certain difficulty in existing," were his last words. With this +model of serene tranquillity, who analyzed the emotions as he would a +problem in mathematics, and reduced life to a debit and credit account, +it is easy to understand the worldly philosophy of the women who came +under his influence. + +But while Mme. de Lambert had a calm and equable temperament, and loved +to surround herself with an atmosphere of repose, she was not without +a fine quality of sentiment. "I exhort you much more to cultivate your +heart," she writes to her son, "than to perfect your mind; the true +greatness of the man is in the heart." "She was not only eager to +serve her friends without waiting for their prayers or the humiliating +exposure of their needs," said Fontenelle, "but a good action to be done +in favor of indifferent people always tempted her warmly.... The ill +success of some acts of generosity did not correct the habit; she was +always equally ready to do a kindness." She has written very delicately +and beautifully of friendships between men and women; and she had her +own intimacies that verged upon tenderness, but were free from any +shadow of reproach. Long after her death, d'Alembert, in his academic +eulogy upon de Sacy, refers touchingly to the devoted friendship that +linked this elegant savant with Mme. de Lambert. "It is believed," +says President Henault, "that she was married to the Marquis de +Sainte-Aulaire. He was a man of esprit, who only bethought himself, +after more than sixty years, of his talent for poetry; and Mme. de +Lambert, whose house was filled with Academicians, gained him entrance +into the Academy, not without strong opposition on the part of Boileau +and some others." Whether the report of this alliance was true or not, +the families were closely united, as the daughter of Mme. de Lambert +was married to a son of Sainte-Aulaire; it is certain that the enduring +affection of this ancient friend lighted the closing years of her life. + +Though tinged with the new philosophy, Mme. de Lambert regarded religion +as a part of a respectable, well-ordered life. "Devotion is a becoming +sentiment in women, and befitting in both sexes," she writes. But she +clearly looked upon it as an external form, rather than an internal +flame. When about to die, at the age of eighty-six, she declined the +services of a friendly confessor, and sent for an abbe who had a great +reputation for esprit. Perhaps she thought he would give her a more +brilliant introduction into the next world; this points to one of her +weaknesses, which was a love of consideration that carried her sometimes +to the verge of affectation. It savors a little of the hypercritical +spirit that is very well illustrated by an anecdote of the witty +Duchesse de Luxenbourg. One morning she took up a prayer book that was +lying upon the table and began to criticize severely the bad taste +of the prayers. A friend ventured to remark that if they were said +reverently and piously, God surely would pay no attention to their +good or bad form. "Indeed," exclaimed the fastidious Marechale, whose +religion was evidently a becoming phase of estheticism, "do not believe +that." + +The thoughts of Mme. de Lambert, so elevated in tone, so fine in +moral quality, so rich in worldly wisdom, and often so felicitous in +expression, tempt one to multiply quotations, especially as they show +us an intimate side of her life, of which otherwise we know very +little. Her personality is veiled. Her human experiences, her loves, +her antipathies, her mistakes, and her errors are a sealed book to us, +excepting as they may be dimly revealed in the complexion of her mind. +Of her influence we need no better evidence than the fact that her salon +was called the antechamber to the Academie Francaise. + +The precise effect of this influence of women over the most powerful +critical body of the century, or of any century, perhaps, we can hardly +measure. In the fact that the Academy became for a time philosophical +rather than critical, and dealt with theories rather than with pure +literature, we trace the finger of the more radical thinkers who made +themselves so strongly felt in the salons. Sainte=Beuve tells us that +Fontenelle, with other friends of Mme. de Lambert, first gave it +this tendency; but his mission was apparently an unconscious one, and +strikingly illustrates the accidental character of the sources of the +intellectual currents which sometimes change the face of the world. "If +I had a handful of truths, I should take good care not to open it," +said this sybarite, who would do nothing that was likely to cause him +trouble. But the truths escaped in spite of him, and these first words +of the new philosophy were perhaps the more dangerous because veiled +and insidious. "You have written the 'Histoire des Oracles,'" said a +philosopher to him, after he had been appointed the royal censor, "and +you refuse me your approbation." "Monsieur," replied Fontenelle, "if I +had been censor when I wrote the 'Histoire des Oracles,' I should have +carefully avoided giving it my approbation." But if the philosophers +finally determined the drift of this learned body, it was undoubtedly +the tact and diplomacy of women which constituted the most potent factor +in the elections which placed them there. The mantle of authority, +so gracefully worn by Mme. de Lambert, fell upon her successors, Mme. +Geoffrin and Mlle. de Lespinasse, losing none of its prestige. As a +rule, the best men in France were sooner or later enrolled among the +Academicians. If a few missed the honor through failure to enlist the +favor of women, as has been said, and a few better courtiers of less +merit attained it, the modern press has not proved a more judicious +tribunal. + + + + +CHAPTER X. THE DUCHESSE DU MAINE + +_Her Capricious Character--Her Esprit--Mlle. de Launay--Clever Portrait +of Her Mistress--Perpetual Fetes at Sceaux--Voltaire and the "Divine +Emilie"--Dilettante Character of this Salon._ + +The life of the eighteenth century, with its restlessness, its love +of amusements, its ferment of activities, and its essential frivolity, +finds a more fitting representative in the Duchesse du Maine, +granddaughter of the Grand Conde, and wife of the favorite son of +Louis XIV, and Mme. de Montespan. The transition from the serene +and thoughtful atmosphere which surrounded Mme. de Lambert, to the +tumultuous whirl of existence at Sceaux, was like passing from the soft +light and tranquillity of a summer evening to the glare and confusion +of perpetual fireworks. Of all the unique figures of a masquerading age +this small and ambitious princess was perhaps the most striking, the +most pervading. It was by no means her aim to take her place in the +world as queen of a salon. Louise-Benedicte de Bourbon belonged to the +royal race, and this was by far the most vivid fact in her life. She +was but a few steps from the throne, and political intrigues played a +conspicuous part in her singular career. But while she waited for the +supreme power to which she aspired, and later, when the feverish dream +of her life was ended, she must be amused, and her diversions must have +an intellectual and imaginative flavor. Wits, artists, literary men, and +savants were alike welcome at Sceaux, if they amused her and entertained +her guests. "One lived there by esprit, and esprit is my God," said Mme. +du Deffand, who was among the brightest ornaments of this circle. + +Born in 1676, the Duchesse du Maine lived through the first half of +the next century, of which her little court was one of the most notable +features. Scarcely above the stature of a child of ten years, slightly +deformed, with a fair face lighted by fine eyes; classically though +superficially educated; gifted in conversation, witty, brilliant, +adoring talent, but cherishing all the prejudices of the old +noblesse--she represented in a superlative degree the passion for esprit +which lent such exceptional brilliancy to the social life of the time. + +In character the duchess was capricious and passionate. "If she were as +good as she is wicked," said the sharp-tongued Palatine, "there would be +nothing to say against her. She is tranquil during the day and passes it +playing at cards, but at its close the extravagances and fits of passion +begin; she torments her husband, her children, her servants, to such +a point that they do not know which way to turn." Her will brooked no +opposition. When forced to leave the Tuileries after the collapse of her +little bubble of political power, she deliberately broke every article +of value in her apartments, consigning mirrors, vases, statues, +porcelains alike to a common ruin, that no one else might enjoy them +after her. This fiery scion of a powerful family, who had inherited its +pride, its ambition, its uncontrollable passions, and its colossal will, +had little patience with the serene temperament and dilettante tastes of +her amiable husband, and it is said she did not scruple to make him +feel the force of her small hands. "You will waken some morning to find +yourself in the Academie Francaise, and the Duc d'Orleans regent," she +said to him one day when he showed her a song he had translated. Her +device was a bee, with this motto: "I am small, but I make deep wounds." +Doubtless its fitness was fully realized by those who belonged to the +Ordre de la Mouche-a-miel which she had instituted, and whose members +were obliged to swear, by Mount Hymettus, fidelity and obedience +to their perpetual dictator. But what pains and chagrins were not +compensated by the bit of lemon-colored ribbon and its small meed of +distinction! + +The little princess worked valiantly for political power, but she worked +in vain. The conspiracy against the regent, which seemed to threaten +another Fronde, came to nothing, and this ardent instrigante, who had +the disposition to "set the four corners of the kingdom on fire" to +attain her ends, found her party dispersed and herself in prison. But +this was only an episode, and though it gave a death blow to her dreams +of power, it did not quench her irrepressible ardor. If she could not +rule in one way, she would in another. As soon as she regained her +freedom, her little court was again her kingdom, and no sovereign ever +reigned more imperiously. "I am fond of company," she said, "for I +listen to no one, and every one listens to me." It was an incessant +thirst for power, a perpetual need of the sweet incense of flattery, +that was at the bottom of this "passion for a multitude." "She believed +in herself," writes Mlle. de Launay, afterward Baronne de Staal, "as +she believed in God or Descartes, without examination and without +discussion." + +This lady's maid, who loved mathematics and anatomy, was familiar with +Malebranche and Descartes, and left some literary reputation as a writer +of gossipy memoirs, was a prominent figure in the lively court at Sceaux +for more than forty years, and has given us some vivid pictures of her +capricious mistress. A young girl of clear intellect and good education, +but without rank, friends, or fortune, she was forced to accept the +humiliating position of femme de chambre with the Duchesse du Maine, who +had been attracted by her talents. She was brought into notice through +a letter to Fontenelle, which was thought witty enough to be copied and +circulated. If she had taken this cool dissector of human motives as +a model, she certainly did credit to his teaching. Her curiously +analytical mind is aptly illustrated by her novel method of measuring +her lover's passion. He was in the habit of accompanying her home from +the house of a friend. When he began to cross the square, instead of +going round it, she concluded that his love had diminished in the exact +proportion of two sides of a square to the diagonal. Promoted to the +position of a companion, she devoted herself to the interests of her +restless mistress, read to her, talked with her, wrote plays for her, +and was the animating spirit of the famous Nuits Blanches. While the +duchess was in exile she shared her disgrace, refused to betray her, and +was sent to the Bastille for her loyalty. She resigned herself to her +imprisonment with admirable philosophy, amused herself in the study of +Latin, in watching the gambols of a cat and kitten, and in carrying on +a safe and sentimental flirtation with the fascinating Duc de Richelieu, +who occupied an adjoining cell and passed the hours in singing with her +popular airs from Iphigenie. "Sentimental" is hardly a fitting word to +apply to the coquetries of this remarkably clear and calculating young +woman. She returned with her patroness to Sceaux, found many admirers, +but married finally with an eye to her best worldly interests, and, +it appears, in the main happily--at least, not unhappily. The shade of +difference implies much. She had a keen, penetrating intellect which +nothing escaped, and as it had the peculiar clearness in which people +and events are reflected as in a mirror, her observations are of great +value. "Aside from the prose of Voltaire, I know of none more agreeable +than that of Mme. de Staal de Launay," said Grimm. Her portrait of her +mistress serves to paint herself as well. + +"Mme. la Duchesse du Maine, at the age of sixty years, has yet learned +nothing from experience; she is a child of much talent; she has +its defects and its charms. Curious and credulous, she wishes to be +instructed in all the different branches of knowledge; but she is +contented with their surface. The decisions of those who educated her +have become for her principles and rules upon which her mind has never +formed the least doubt; she submits once for all. Her provision for +ideas is made; she rejects the best demonstrated truths and resists the +best reasonings, if they are contrary to the first impressions she has +received. All examination is impossible to her lightness, and doubt is +a state which her weakness cannot support. Her catechism and the +philosophy of Descartes are two systems which she understands equally +well.... Her mirror cannot make her doubt the charms of her face; the +testimony of her eyes is more questionable than the judgment of those +who have decided that she is beautiful and well-formed. Her vanity is +of a singular kind, but seems the less offensive because it is not +reflective, though in reality it is the more ridiculous, Intercourse +with her is a slavery; her tyranny is open; she does not deign to color +it with the appearance of friendship. She says frankly that she has the +misfortune of not being able to do without people for whom she does not +care. She proves it effectually. One sees her learn with indifference +the death of those who would call forth torrents of tears if they were a +quarter of an hour too late for a card party or a promenade." + +But this vain and self-willed woman read Virgil and Terence in the +original, was devoted to Greek tragedies, dipped into philosophy, +traversed the surface of many sciences, turned a madrigal with facility, +and talked brilliantly. "The language is perfect only when you speak it +or when one speaks of you," wrote Mme. de Lambert, in a tone of discreet +flattery. "No one has ever spoken with more correctness, clearness, and +rapidity, neither in a manner more noble or more natural," said Mlle. de +Launay. + +Through this feminine La Bruyere, as Sainte-Beuve has styled her, we +are introduced to the life at Sceaux. It was the habit of the guests +to assemble at eight, listen to music or plays, improvise verses for +popular airs, relate racy anecdotes, or amuse themselves with proverbs. +"Write verses for me," said the insatiable duchess when ill; "I feel +that verses only can give me relief." The quality does not seem to +have been essential, provided they were sufficiently flattering. +Sainte-Aulaire wrote madrigals for her. Malezieu, the learned and +versatile preceptor of the Duc du Maine, read Sophocles and Euripides. +Mme. du Maine herself acted the roles of Athalie and Iphigenie with the +famous Baron. They played at science, contemplated the heavens through a +telescope and the earth through a microscope. In their eager search for +novelty they improvised fetes that rivaled in magnificence the Arabian +Nights; they posed as gods and goddesses, or, affecting simplicity, +assumed rustic and pastoral characters, even to their small economies +and romantic platitudes. Mythology, the chivalry of the Middle Ages, +costumes, illuminations, scenic effects, the triumphs of the artists, +the wit of the bel esprit--all that ingenuity could devise or money +could buy was brought into service. It was the life that Watteau +painted, with its quaint and grotesque fancies, its sylvan divinities, +and its sighing lovers wandering in endless masquerade, or whispering +tender nothings on banks of soft verdure, amid the rustle of leaves, +the sparkle of fountains, the glitter of lights, and the perfume +of innumerable flowers. It was a perpetual carnival, inspired by +imagination, animated by genius, and combining everything that could +charm the taste, distract the mind, and intoxicate the senses. The +presiding genius of this fairy scene was the irrepressible duchess, who +reigned as a goddess and demanded the homage due to one. Well might the +weary courtiers cry out against les galeres du bel esprit. + +But this fantastic princess who carried on a sentimental correspondence +with the blind La Motte, and posed as the tender shepherdess of the +adoring but octogenarian Sainte-Aulaire, had no really democratic +notions. There was no question in her mind of the divine right of kings +or of princesses. She welcomed Voltaire because he flattered her vanity +and amused her guests, but she was far enough from the theories which +were slowly fanning the sparks of the Revolution. Her rather imperious +patronage of literary and scientific men set a fashion which all her +world tried to follow. It added doubtless to the prestige of those who +were insidiously preparing the destruction of the very foundations on +which this luxurious and pleasure-loving society rested. But, after all, +the bond between this restless, frivolous, heartless coterie and the +genuine men of letters was very slight. There was no seriousness, no +earnestness, no sincerity, no solid foundation. + +The literary men, however, who figured most conspicuously in the +intimate circle of the Duchesse du Maine were not of the first order. +Malezieu was learned, a member of two Academies, faintly eulogized by +Fontenelle, warmly so by Voltaire, and not at all by Mlle. de Launay; +but twenty-five years devoted to humoring the caprices and flattering +the tastes of a vain and exacting patroness were not likely to develop +his highest possibilities. There is a point where the stimulating +atmosphere of the salon begins to enervate. His clever assistant, +the Abbe Genest, poet and Academician, was a sort of Voiture, witty, +versatile, and available. He tried to put Descartes into verse, which +suggests the quality of his poetry. Sainte-Aulaire, who, like his friend +Fontenelle, lived a century, frequented this society more or less for +forty years, but his poems are sufficiently light, if one may judge from +a few samples, and his genius doubtless caught more reflections in +the salon than in a larger world. He owed his admission to the Academy +partly to a tender quatrain which he improvised in praise of his lively +patroness. It is true we have occasional glimpses of Voltaire. Once +he sought an asylum here for two months, after one of his numerous +indiscretions, writing tales during the day, which he read to the +duchess at night. Again he came with his "divine Emilie," the learned +Marquise du Chatelet, who upset the household with her eccentric ways. +"Our ghosts do not show themselves by day," writes Mlle. de Launay; +"they appeared yesterday at ten o'clock in the evening. I do not think +we shall see them earlier today; one is writing high facts, the other, +comments upon Newton. They wish neither to play nor to promenade; they +are very useless in a society where their learned writings are of no +account." But Voltaire was a courtier, and, in spite of his frequent +revolts against patronage, was not at all averse to the incense of the +salons and the favors of the great. It was another round in the ladder +that led him towards glory. + +The cleverest women in France were found at Sceaux, but the dominant +spirit was the princess herself. It was amusement she wanted, and even +men of talent were valued far less for what they were intrinsically than +for what they could contribute to her vanity or to her diversion. "She +is a predestined soul," wrote Voltaire. "She will love comedy to the +last moment, and when she is ill I counsel you to administer some +beautiful poem in the place of extreme unction. One dies as one has +lived." + +Mme. du Maine represented the conservative side of French society in +spite of the fact that her abounding mental vitality often broke through +the stiff boundaries of old traditions. It was not because she did not +still respect them, but she had the defiant attitude of a princess whose +will is an unwritten law superior to all traditions. The tone of her +salon was in the main dilettante, as is apt to be the case with +any circle that plumes itself most upon something quite apart from +intellectual distinction. It reflected the spirit of an old aristocracy, +with its pride, its exclusiveness, its worship of forms, but faintly +tinged with the new thought that was rapidly but unconsciously +encroaching upon time-honored institutions. Beyond the clever pastimes +of a brilliant coterie, it had no marked literary influence. This +ferment of intellectual life was one of the signs of the times, but +it led to no more definite and tangible results than the turning of a +madrigal or the sparkle of an epigram. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. MADAME DE TENCIN AND MADAME DU CHATELET + +_An Intriguing Chanoinesse--Her Singular Fascination--Her Salon--Its +Philosophical Character--Mlle. Aisse--Romances of Mme. de +Tencin--D'Alembert--La Belle Emilie--Voltaire--The Two Women Compared_ + +It was not in the restless searchings of an old society for new +sensations, new diversions, nor in the fleeting expressions of +individual taste or caprice, which were often little more than the play +of small vanities, that the most potent forces in the political as well +as in the intellectual life of France were found. It was in the coteries +which attracted the best representatives of modern thought, men and +women who took the world on a more serious side, and mingled more or +less of earnestness even in their amusements. While the Duchesse du +Maine was playing her little comedy, which began and ended in herself, +another woman, of far different type, and without rank or riches, was +scheming for her friends, and nursing the germs of the philosophic party +in one of the most notable salons of the first half of the century. +Mme. de Tencin is not an interesting figure to contemplate from a moral +standpoint. "She was born with the most fascinating qualities and the +most abominable defects that God ever gave to one of his creatures," +said Mme. du Deffand, who was far from being able to pose, herself, as +a model of virtue or decorum. But sin has its degrees, and the woman who +errs within the limits of conventionality considers herself entitled +to sit in judgment upon her sister who wanders outside of the fold. +Measured even by the complaisant standards of her own time, there can be +but one verdict upon the character of Mme. de Tencin, though it is to be +hoped that the scandal-loving chroniclers have painted her more darkly +than she deserved. But whatever her faults may have been, her talent +and her influence were unquestioned. She posed in turn as a saint, an +intrigante, and a femme d'esprit, with marked success in every one of +these roles. But it was not a comedy she was playing for the amusement +of the hour. Beneath the velvet softness of her manner there was a +definite aim, an inflexible purpose. With the tact and facility of a +Frenchwoman, she had a strong, active intellect, boundless ambition, +indomitable energy, and the subtlety of an Italian. + +An incident of her early life, related by Mme. du Deffand, furnishes a +key to her complex character, and reveals one secret of her influence. +Born of a poor and proud family in Grenoble, in 1681, Claudine +Alexandrine Guerin de Tencin was destined from childhood for the +cloister. Her strong aversion to the life of a nun was unavailing, and +she was sent to a convent at Montfleury. This prison does not seem to +have been a very austere one, and the discipline was far from rigid. The +young novice was so devout that the archbishop prophesied a new light +for the church, and she easily persuaded him of the necessity of +occupying the minds of the religieuses by suitable diversions. Though +not yet sixteen, this pretty, attractive, vivacious girl was fertile in +resources, and won her way so far into the good graces of her superiors +as to be permitted to organize reunions, and to have little comedies +played which called together the provincial society. She transformed the +convent, but her secret disaffection was unchanged. She took the final +vows under the compulsion of her inflexible father, then continued +her role of devote to admirable purpose. By the zeal of her piety, the +severity of her penance, and the ardor of her prayers, she gained the +full sympathy of her ascetic young confessor, to whom she confided her +feeling of unfitness for a religious life, and her earnest desire to be +freed from the vows which sat so uneasily upon her sensitive conscience. +He exhorted her to steadfastness, but finally she wrote him a letter in +which she confessed her hopeless struggle against a consuming passion, +and urged the necessity of immediate release. The conclusion was +obvious. The Abbe Fleuret was horrified by the conviction that this +pretty young nun was in love with himself, and used his influence +to secure her transference to a secular order at Neuville, where as +chanoinesse, she had many privileges and few restrictions. Here she +became at once a favorite, as before, charming by her modest devotion, +and amusing by her brilliant wit. Artfully, and by degrees, she +convinced those in authority of the need of a representative in Paris. +This office she was chosen to fill. Playing her pious part to the last, +protesting with tears her pain at leaving a life she loved, and her +unfitness for so great an honor she set out upon her easy mission. +There are many tales of a scandalous life behind all this sanctity and +humility, but her new position gave her consideration, influence, and a +good revenue. "Young, beautiful, clever, with an adorable talent," this +"nun unhooded" fascinated the regent, and was his favorite for a few +days. But her ambition got the better of her prudence. She ventured +upon political ground, and he saw her no more. With his minister, the +infamous Dubois, she was more successful, and he served her purpose +admirably well. Through her notorious relations with him she enriched +her brother and secured him a cardinal's hat. The intrigues of this +unscrupulous trio form an important episode in the history of the +period. When Dubois died, within a few months of the regent, she wept, +as she said, "that fools might believe she regretted him." + +Her clear, incisive intellect and conversational charm would have +assured the success of any woman at a time when these things counted for +so much. "At thirty-six," wrote Mme. du Deffand, "she was beautiful and +fresh as a woman of twenty; her eyes sparkled, her lips had a smile +at the same time sweet and perfidious; she wished to be good, and gave +herself great trouble to seem so, without succeeding." Indolent +and languid with flashes of witty vivacity, insinuating and facile, +unconscious of herself, interested in everyone with whom she talked, she +combined the tact, the finesse, the subtle penetration of a woman +with the grasp, the comprehensiveness, and the knowledge of political +machinery which are traditionally accorded to a man. "If she wanted to +poison you, she would use the mildest poison," said the Abbe Trublet. + +"I cannot express the illusion which her air of nonchalance and easy +grace left with me," says Marmontel. "Mme. de Tencin, the woman in the +kingdom who moved the most political springs, both in the city and at +court, was for me only an indolente. Ah, what finesse, what suppleness, +what activity were concealed beneath this naive air, this appearance of +calm and leisure!" But he confesses that she aided him greatly with her +counsel, and that he owed to her much of his knowledge of the world. + +"Unhappy those who depend upon the pen," she said to him; "nothing is +more chimerical. The man who makes shoes is sure of his wages; the man +who makes a book or a tragedy is never sure of anything." She advises +him to make friends of women rather than of men. "By means of women, +one attains all that one wishes from men, of whom some are too +pleasure-loving, others too much preoccupied with their personal +interests not to neglect yours; whereas women think of you, if only from +idleness. Speak this evening to one of them of some affair that concerns +you; tomorrow at her wheel, at her tapestry, you will find her dreaming +of it, and searching in her head for some means of serving you." + +Prominent among her friends were Bolingbroke and Fontenelle. "It is not +a heart which you have there," she said to the latter, laying her hand +on the spot usually occupied by that organ, "but a second brain." She +had enlisted what stood in the place of it, however, and he interested +himself so far as to procure her final release from her vows, through +Benedict XIV, who, as Cardinal Lambertini, had frequented her salon, +and who sent her his portrait as a souvenir, after his election to the +papacy. + +Through her intimacy with the Duc de Richelieu, Mme. de Tencin made +herself felt even in the secret councils of Louis XV. Her practical mind +comprehended more clearly than many of the statesmen the forces at work +and the weakness that coped with them. "Unless God visibly interferes," +she said, "it is physically impossible that the state should not fall in +pieces." It was her influence that inspired Mme. de Chateauroux with +the idea of sending her royal lover to revive the spirits of the army +in Flanders. "It is not, between ourselves, that he is in a state to +command a company of grenadiers," she wrote to her brother, "but his +presence will avail much. The troops will do their duty better, and the +generals will not dare to fail them so openly... A king, whatever he may +be, is for the soldiers and people what the ark of the covenant was for +the Hebrews; his presence alone promises success." + +Her devotion to her friends was the single redeeming trait in her +character, and she hesitated at nothing to advance the interests of her +brother, over whose house she gracefully presided. But she failed in her +ultimate ambition to elevate him to the ministry, and her intrigues were +so much feared that Cardinal Fleury sent her away from Paris for a short +time. Her disappointments, which it is not the purpose to trace here, +left her one of the disaffected party, and on her return her drawing +room became a rallying point for the radical thinkers of France. + +Such was the woman who courted, flattered, petted, and patronized the +literary and scientific men of Paris, called them her menagerie, put +them into a sort of uniform, gave them two suppers a week, and sent +them two ells of velvet for small clothes at New Year's. Of her salon, +Marmontel gives us an interesting glimpse. He had been invited to read +one of his tragedies, and it was his first introduction. + +"I saw assembled there Montesquieu, Fontenelle, Mairan, Marivaux, the +young Helvetius, Astruc, and others, all men of science or letters, +and, in the midst of them, a woman of brilliant intellect and profound +judgment, who, with her kind and simple exterior, had rather the +appearance of the housekeeper than the mistress. This was Mme. de +Tencin.... I soon perceived that the guests came there prepared to play +their parts, and that their wish to shine did not leave the conversation +always free to follow its easy and natural course. Every one tried +to seize quickly and on the wing the moment to bring in his word, +his story, his anecdote, his maxim, or to add his dash of light and +sparkling wit; and, in order to do this opportunely, it was often rather +far-fetched. In Marivaux, the impatience to display his finesse and +sagacity was quite apparent. Montesquieu, with more calmness, waited for +the ball to come to him, but he waited. Mairan watched his opportunity. +Astruc did not deign to wait. Fontenelle alone let it come to him +without seeking it, and he used so discreetly the attention given him, +that his witty sayings and his clever stories never occupied more than a +moment. Alert and reserved, Helvetius listened and gathered material for +the future." + +Mme. de Tencin loved literature and philosophy for their own sake, and +received men of letters at their intrinsic value. She encouraged, +too, the freedom of thought and expression at that time so rare and +so dangerous. It was her influence that gave its first impulse to the +success of Montesquieu's esprit DES LOIS, of which she personally bought +and distributed many copies. If she talked well, she knew also how to +listen, to attract by her sympathy, to aid by her generosity, to inspire +by her intelligence, to charm by her versatility. + +Another figure flits in and out of this salon, whose fine qualities +of soul shine so brightly in this morally stifling atmosphere that one +forgets her errors in a mastering impulse of love and pity. There is no +more pathetic history in this arid and heartless age than that of Mlle. +Aisse, the beautiful Circassian, with the lustrous, dark, Oriental +eyes, who was brought from Constantinople in infancy by the French +envoy, and left as a precious heritage to Mme. de Ferriol, the +intriguing sister of Mme. de Tencin, and her worthy counterpart, if +not in talent, in the faults that darkened their common womanhood. This +delicate young girl, surrounded by worldly and profligate friends, and +drawn in spite of herself into the errors of her time, redeemed her +character by her romantic heroism, her unselfish devotion, and her +final revolt against what seemed to be an inexorable fate. The struggle +between her self-forgetful love for the knightly Chevalier d'Aydie +and her sensitive conscience, her refusal to cloud his future by a +portionless marriage, and her firmness in severing an unholy tie, +knowing that the sacrifice would cost her life, as it did, form an +episode as rare as it is tragical. But her exquisite personality, her +rich gifts of mind and soul, her fine intelligence, her passionate love, +almost consecrated by her pious but fatal renunciation, call up one +of the loveliest visions of the century--a vision that lingers in the +memory like a medieval poem. + +Mme. de Tencin amused her later years b writing sentimental tales, which +were found among her papers after her death. These were classed with the +romances of Mme. de La Fayette. Speaking of the latter, La Harpe said, +"Only one other woman succeeded, a century later, in painting with +equal power the struggles of love and virtue." It is one of the curious +inconsistencies of her character, that her creations contained an +element which her life seems wholly to have lacked. Behind all her +faults of conduct there was clearly an ideal of purity and goodness. Her +stories are marked by a vividness and an ardor of passion rarely found +in the insipid and colorless romances of the preceding age. Her pictures +of love and intrigue and crime are touched with the religious enthusiasm +of the cloister, the poetry of devotion, the heroism of self-sacrifice. +Perhaps the dark and mysterious facts of her own history shaped +themselves in her imagination. Did the tragedy of La Fresnaye, the +despairing lover who blew out his brains at her feet, leaving the shadow +of a crime hanging over her, with haunting memories of the Bastille, +recall the innocence of her own early convent days? Did she remember +some long-buried love, and the child left to perish upon the steps of +St. Jean le Rond, but grown up to be her secret pride in the person of +the great mathematician and philosopher d'Alembert? What was the subtle +link between this worldly woman and the eternal passion, the tender +self-sacrifice of Adelaide, the loyal heroine who breathes out her +solitary and devoted soul on the ashes of La Trappe, unknown to her +faithful and monastic lover, until the last sigh? The fate of Adelaide +has become a legend. It has furnished a theme for the poet and the +artist, an inspiration for the divine strains of Beethoven, another leaf +in the annals of pure and heroic love. But the woman who conceived it +toyed with the human heart as with a beautiful flower, to be tossed +aside when its first fragrance was gone. She apparently knew neither the +virtue, nor the honor, nor the purity, nor the truth of which she had so +exquisite a perception in the realm of the imagination. Or were some of +the episodes which darken the story of her life simply the myths of a +gossiping age, born of the incidents of an idle tale, to live forever on +the pages of history? + +But it was not as a literary woman that Mme. de Tencin held her position +and won her fame. Her gifts were eminently those of her age and race, +and it may be of interest to compare her with a woman of larger talent +of a purely intellectual order, who belonged more or less to the world +of the salons, without aspiring to leadership, and who, though much +younger, died in the same year. Mme. du Chatelet was essentially a woman +of letters. She loved the exact sciences, expounded Leibnitz, translated +Newton, gave valuable aid to Voltaire in introducing English thought +into France, and was one of the first women among the nobility to accept +the principles of philosophic deism. "I confess that she is tyrannical," +said Voltaire; "one must talk about metaphysics, when the temptation +is to talk of love. Ovid was formerly my master; it is now the turn of +Locke." She has been clearly but by no means pleasantly painted for us +in the familiar letters of Mme. de Graffigny, in the rather malicious +sketches of the Marquise de Crequi, and in the still more strongly +outlined portrait or Mme. du Deffand, as a veritable bas bleu, learned, +pedantic, eccentric, and without grace or beauty. "Imagine a woman tall +and hard, with florid complexion, face sharp, nose pointed--VOILA +LA BELLE EMILIE," writes the latter; "a face with which she was so +contented that she spared nothing to set it off; curls, topknots, +precious stones, all are in profusion... She was born with much esprit; +the desire of appearing to have more made her prefer the study of the +abstract sciences to agreeable branches of knowledge; she thought +by this singularity to attain a greater reputation and a decided +superiority over all other women. Madame worked with so much care to +seem what she was not, that no one knew exactly what she was; even +her defects were not natural." "She talks like an angel"--"she sings +divinely"--"our sex ought to erect altars to her," wrote Mme. de +Graffigny during a visit at her chateau. A few weeks later her tone +changed. They had quarreled. Of such stuff is history made. But she had +already given a charming picture of the life at Cirey. + +Mme. du Chatelet plunged into abstractions during the day. In the +evening she was no more the savante, but gave herself up to the +pleasures of society with the ardor of a nature that was extreme in +everything. Voltaire read his poetry and his dramas, told stories that +made them weep and then laugh at their tears, improvised verses, and +amused them with marionettes, or the magic lantern. La belle Emilie +criticized the poems, sang, and played prominent parts in the comedies +and tragedies of the philosopher poet, which were first given in her +little private theater. Among the guests were the eminent scientist, +Maupertuis, her life-long friend and teacher; the Italian savant, +Algarotti, President Henault, Helvetius, the poet, Saint-Lambert, and +many others of equal distinction. "Of what do we not talk!" writes Mme. +de Graffigny. "Poetry, science, art, everything, in a tone of +graceful badinage. I should like to be able to send you these charming +conversations, these enchanting conversations, but it is not in me." + +Mme. du Chatelet owned for several years the celebrated Hotel Lambert, +and a choice company of savants assembled there as in the days when Mme. +de Lambert presided in those stately apartments. But this learned salon +had only a limited vogue. The thinking was high, but the dinners were +too plain. The real life of Mme. du Chatelet was an intimate one. "I +confess that in love and friendship lies all my happiness," said +this astronomer, metaphysician, and mathematician, who wrote against +revelation and went to mass with her free-thinking lover. Her learning +and eccentricities made her the target for many shafts of ridicule, but +she counted for much with Voltaire, and her chief title to fame lies in +his long and devoted friendship. He found the "sublime and respectable +Emilie" the incarnation of all the virtues, though a trifle +ill-tempered. The contrast between his kindly portrait and those of her +feminine friends is striking and rather suggestive. + +"She joined to the taste for glory a simplicity which does not always +accompany it, but which is often the fruit of serious studies. No woman +was ever so learned, and no one deserves less to be called a femme +savante. Born with a singular eloquence, this eloquence manifested +itself only when she found subjects worthy of it... The fitting word, +precision, justness, and force were the characteristics of her style. +She would rather write like Pascal and Nicole than like Mme. de Sevigne; +but this severe strength and this vigorous temper of her mind did not +render her inaccessible to the beauties of sentiment. The charms of +poetry and eloquence penetrated her, and no one was ever more sensitive +to harmony... She gave herself to the great world as to study. +Everything that occupies society was in her province except scandal. +She was never known to repeat an idle story. She had neither time nor +disposition to give attention to such things, and when told that some +one had done her an injustice, she replied that she did not wish to hear +about it." + +"She led him a life a little hard," said Mme. de Graffigny, after +her quarrel; but he seems to have found it agreeable, and broke his +heart--for a short time--when she died. "I have lost half of my being," +he wrote--"a soul for which mine was made." To Marmontel he says: "Come +and share my sorrow. I have lost my illustrious friend. I am in despair. +I am inconsolable." One cannot believe that so clear-sighted a man, even +though a poet, could live for twenty years under the spell of a pure +illusion. What heart revelations, what pictures of contemporary life, +were lost in the eight large volumes of his letters which were destroyed +at her death! + +While Mme. de Tencin studied men and affairs, Mme. du Chatelet studied +books. One was mistress of the arts of diplomacy, gentle but intriguing, +ambitious, always courting society and shunning solitude. The other +was violent and imperious, hated finesse, and preferred burying herself +among the rare treasures of her library at Cirey. + +The influence of Mme. de Tencin was felt, not only in the social and +intellectual, but in the political life of the century. The traditions +of her salon lingered in those which followed, modified by the changes +that time and personal taste always bring. Mme. du Chatelet was more +learned, but she lacked the tact and charm which give wide personal +ascendancy. Her influence was largely individual, and her books have +been mostly forgotten. These women were alike defiant of morality, but +taken all in all, the character of Mme. Chatelet has more redeeming +points, though little respect can be accorded to either. With the wily +intellect of a Talleyrand, Mme. de Tencin represents the social genius, +the intelligence, the esprit, and the worst vices of the century on +which she has left such conspicuous traces. + +"She knew my tastes and always offered me those dishes I preferred," +said Fontenelle when she died in 1740. "It is an irreparable loss." +Perhaps his hundred years should excuse his not going to her funeral for +fear of catching cold. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. MADAME GEOFFRIN AND THE PHILOSOPHERS + +_Cradles of the New Philosophy--Noted Salons of this Period-- +Character of Mme. Geoffrin--Her Practical Education--Anecdotes of her +Husband--Composition of her Salon--Its Insidious Influence--Her Journey +to Warsaw--Her Death_ + +During the latter half of the eighteenth century the center of social +life was no longer the court, but the salons. They had multiplied +indefinitely, and, representing every shade of taste and thought, had +reached the climax of their power as schools of public opinion, as well +as their highest perfection in the arts and amenities of a brilliant and +complex society. There was a slight reaction from the reckless vices and +follies of the regency. If morals were not much better, manners were a +trifle more decorous. Though the great world did not take the tone of +stately elegance and rigid propriety which it had assumed under the +rule of Mme. de Maintenon, it was superficially polished, and a note +of thoughtfulness was added. Affairs in France had taken too serious an +aspect to be ignored, and the theories of the philosophers were among +the staple topics of conversation; indeed, it was the great vogue of +the philosophers that gave many of the most noted social centers their +prestige and their fame. It is not the salons of the high nobility that +suggest themselves as the typical ones of this age. It is those which +were animated by the habitual presence of the radical leaders of French +thought. Economic questions and the rights of man were discussed as +earnestly in these brilliant coteries as matters of faith and sentiment, +of etiquette and morals, had been a hundred years before. Such subjects +were forced upon them by the inexorable logic of events; and fashion, +which must needs adapt itself in some measure to the world over which +it rules, took them up. If the drawing rooms of the seventeenth century +were the cradles of refined manners and a new literature, those of the +eighteenth were literally the cradles of a new philosophy. + +The practical growth and spread of French philosophy was too closely +interwoven with the history of the salons not to call for a word here. +Its innovations were faintly prefigured in the coterie of Mme. de +Lambert, where it colored almost imperceptibly the literary and critical +discussions. But its foundations were more firmly laid in the drawing +room of Mme. de Tencin, where the brilliant wit and radical theories of +Montesquieu, as well as the pronounced materialism of Helvetius, found +a congenial atmosphere. Though the mingled romance and satire of the +"Persian Letters," with their covert attack upon the state and society, +raised a storm of antagonism, they called out a burst of admiration +as well. The original and aggressive thought of men like Voltaire, +Rousseau, d'Alembert, and Diderot, with its diversity of shading, but +with the cardinal doctrine of freedom and equality pervading it all, had +found a rapidly growing audience. It no longer needed careful nursing, +in the second half of the century. It had invaded the salons of the +haute noblesse, and was discussed even in the anterooms of the court. +Mme. de Pompadour herself stole away from her tiresome lover-king to +the freethinking coterie that met in her physician's apartments in the +Entresol at Versailles, and included the greatest iconoclasts of the +age. If she had any misgivings as to the outcome of these discussions, +they were fearlessly cast aside with "Apres Nous le Deluge." "In the +depth of her heart she was with us," said Voltaire when she died. + +There were clairvoyant spirits who traced the new theories to their +logical results. Mme. du Deffand speaks with prophetic vision of the +reasoners and beaux esprits "who direct the age and lead it to its +ruin." There were conservative women, too, who used their powerful +influence against them. It was in the salon of the delicate but ardent +young Princesse de Robecq that Palissot was inspired to write +the satirical comedy of "The Philosophers," in which Rousseau was +represented as entering on all fours, browsing a lettuce, and the +Encyclopedists were so mercilessly ridiculed. This spirited and heroic +daughter-in-law of the Duchesse de Luxembourg, the powerful patroness of +Rousseau, was hopelessly ill at the time, and, in a caustic reply to the +clever satire, the abbe Morellet did not spare the beautiful invalid who +desired for her final consolation only to see its first performance and +be able to say, "Now, Lord, thou lettest thy servant depart in peace, +for mine eyes have seen vengeance." The cruel attack was thought to have +hastened her death, and the witty abbe was sent to the Bastille; but +he came out in two months, went away for a time, and returned a greater +hero than ever. There is a picture, full of pathetic significance, which +represents the dying princess on her pillow, crowned with a halo of +sanctity, as she devotes her last hours to the defense of the faith she +loves. One is reminded of the sweet and earnest souls of Port Royal; but +her vigorous protest, which furnished only a momentary target for the +wit of the philosophers, was lost in the oncoming wave of skepticism. + +The vogue of these men received its final stamp in the admiring +patronage of the greatest sovereigns in Europe. Voltaire had his +well-known day of power at the court of Frederick the Great. Grimm and +Diderot, too, were honored guests of that most liberal of despots, and +discussed their novel theories in familiar fashion with Catherine II, +at St. Petersburg. The reply of this astute and clear-sighted empress +to the eloquent plea of Diderot may be commended for its wisdom to the +dreamers and theorists of today. + +"I have heard, with the greatest pleasure, all that your brilliant +intellect has inspired you to say; but with all your grand principles, +which I comprehend very well, one makes fine books and bad business. You +forget in all your plans of reform the difference of our two positions. +You work only on paper, which permits everything; it is quite smooth and +pliant, and opposes no obstacles to your imagination nor to your pen; +while I, poor empress, I work upon the human cuticle, which is quite +sensitive and irritable." + +It is needless to say that the men so honored by sovereigns were petted +in the salons, in spite of their disfavor with the Government. They +dined, talked, posed as lions or as martyrs, and calmly bided their +time. The persecution of the Encyclopedists availed little more than +satire had done, in stemming the slowly rising tide of public opinion. +Utopian theories took form in the ultra circles, were insidiously +disseminated in the moderate ones, and were lightly discussed in the +fashionable ones. Men who talked, and women who added enthusiasm, were +alike unconscious of the dynamic force of the material with which they +were playing. + +Of the salons which at this period had a European reputation, the most +noted were those of Mme. du Deffand, Mlle. de Lespinasse, and Mme. +Geoffrin. The first was the resort of the more intellectual of the +noblesse, as well as the more famous of the men of letters. The two +worlds mingled here; the tone was spiced with wit and animated with +thought, but it was essentially aristocratic. The second was the +rallying point of the Encyclopedists and much frequented by political +reformers, but the rare gifts of its hostess attracted many from the +great world. The last was moderate in tone, though philosophical and +thoroughly cosmopolitan. Sainte-Beuve pronounced it "the most complete, +the best organized, and best conducted of its time; the best established +since the foundation of the salons; that is, since the Hotel de +Rambouillet." + +"Do you know why La Geoffrin comes here? It is to see what she can +gather from my inventory," remarked Mme. de Tencin on her death bed. +She understood thoroughly her world, and knew that her friend wished to +capture the celebrities who were in the habit of meeting in her salon. +But she does not seem to have borne her any ill will for her rather +premature schemes, as she gave her a characteristic piece of advice: +"Never refuse any advance of friendship," she said; "for, if nine out of +ten bring you nothing, one alone may repay you. Everything is of service +in a menage if one knows how to use his tools." Mme. Geoffrin was an +apt pupil in the arts of diplomacy, and the key to her remarkable social +success may be found in her ready assimilation of the worldly wisdom of +her sage counselor. But to this she added a far kinder heart and a more +estimable character. + +Of all the women who presided over famous salons, Mme. Geoffrin had +perhaps the least claim to intellectual preeminence. The secret of her +power must have lain in some intangible quality that has failed to +be perpetuated in any of her sayings or doings. A few commonplace and +ill-spelled letters, a few wise or witty words, are all the direct +record she has left of herself. Without rank, beauty, youth, education, +or remarkable mental gifts of a sort that leave permanent traces, she +was the best representative of the women of her time who held their +place in the world solely through their skill in organizing and +conducting a salon. She was in no sense a luminary; and conscious that +she could not shine by her own light, she was bent upon shining by that +of others. But, in a social era so brilliant, even this implied talent +of a high order. A letter to the Empress of Russia, in reply to a +question concerning her early education, throws a ray of light upon her +youth and her peculiar training. + +"I lost my father and mother," she writes, "in the cradle. I was brought +up by an aged grandmother, who had much intelligence and a well-balanced +head. She had very little education; but her mind was so clear, so +ready, so active, that it never failed her; it served always in the +place of knowledge. She spoke so agreeably of the things she did not +know that no one wished her to understand them better; and when her +ignorance was too visible, she got out of it by pleasantries which +baffled the pedants who tried to humiliate her. She was so contented +with her lot that she looked upon knowledge as a very useless thing for +a woman. She said: 'I have done without it so well that I have never +felt the need of it. If my granddaughter is stupid, learning will make +her conceited and insupportable; if she has talent and sensibility, she +will do as I have done--supply by address and with sentiment what she +does not know; when she becomes more reasonable, she will learn that for +which she has the most aptitude, and she will learn it very quickly.' +She taught me in my childhood simply to read, but she made me read much; +she taught me to think by making me reason; she taught me to know men +by making me say what I thought of them, and telling me also the opinion +she had formed. She required me to render her an account of all my +movements and all my feelings, correcting them with so much sweetness +and grace that I never concealed from her anything that I thought or +felt; my internal life was as visible as my external. My education was +continual." + +The daughter of a valet de chambre of the Duchess of Burgundy, who gave +her a handsome dowry, Marie Therese Rodet became, at fourteen, the wife +of a lieutenant-colonel of the National Guard and a rich manufacturer of +glass. Her husband did not count for much among the distinguished guests +who in later years frequented her salon, and his part in her life seems +to have consisted mainly in furnishing the money so essential to her +success, and in looking carefully after the interests of the menage. It +is related that some one gave him a history to read, and when he called +for the successive volumes the same one was always returned to him. Not +observing this, he found the work interesting, but "thought the author +repeated a little." He read across the page a book printed in two +columns, remarking that "it seemed to be very good, but a trifle +abstract." One day a visitor inquired for the white-haired old gentleman +who was in the habit of sitting at the head of the table. "That was my +husband," replied Mme. Geoffrin; "he is dead." + +But if her marriage was not an ideal one, it does not appear that it was +unhappy. Perhaps her bourgeois birth and associations saved her youth +from the domestic complications which were so far the rule in the great +world as to have, in a measure, its sanction. At all events her life +was apparently free from the shadows that rested upon many of her +contemporaries. + +"Her character was a singular one," writes Marmontel, who lived for ten +years in her house, "and difficult to understand or paint, because it +was all in half-tints and shades; very decided nevertheless, but without +the striking traits by which one's nature distinguishes and defines +itself. She was kind, but had little sensibility; charitable, without +any of the charms of benevolence; eager to aid the unhappy, but without +seeing them, for fear of being moved; a sure, faithful, even officious +friend, but timid and anxious in serving others, lest she should +compromise her credit or her repose. She was simple in her taste, her +dress, and her furniture, but choice in her simplicity, having the +refinements and delicacies of luxury, but nothing of its ostentation nor +its vanity; modest in her air, carriage, and manners, but with a touch +of pride, and even a little vainglory. Nothing flattered her more +than her intercourse with the great. At their houses she rarely saw +them,--indeed she was not at her ease there,--but she knew how to +attract them to her own by a coquetry subtly flattering; and in the +easy, natural, half-respectful and half-familiar air with which she +received them, I thought I saw remarkable address." + +In a woman of less tact and penetration, this curious vein of hidden +vanity would have led to pretension. But Mme. Geoffrin was preeminently +gifted with that fine social sense which is apt to be only the fruit of +generations of culture. With her it was innate genius. She was mistress +of the amiable art of suppressing herself, and her vanity assumed the +form of a gracious modesty. "I remain humble, but with dignity," she +writes to a friend; "that is, in depreciating myself I do not suffer +others to depreciate me." She had the instinct of the artist who knows +how to offset the lack of brilliant gifts by the perfection of details, +the modesty that disarms criticism, and a rare facility in the art of +pleasing. + +There was an air of refinement and simple elegance in her personality +that commanded respect. Tall and dignified, with her silvery hair +concealed by her coif, she combined a noble presence with great +kindliness of manner. She usually wore somber colors and fine laces, +for which she had great fondness. Her youth was long past when she came +before the world, and that sense of fitness which always distinguished +her led her to accept her age seriously and to put on its hues. The +"dead-leaf mantle" of Mme. de Maintenon was worn less severely perhaps, +but it was worn without affectation. Diderot gives us a pleasant glimpse +of her at Grandval, where they were dining with Baron d'Holbach. "Mme. +Geoffrin was admirable," he wrote to Mlle. Volland. "I remark always the +noble and quiet taste with which this woman dresses. She wore today a +simple stuff of austere color, with large sleeves, the smoothest and +finest linen, and the most elegant simplicity throughout." + +In her equanimity and her love of repose she was a worthy disciple +of Fontenelle. She carefully avoided all violent passions and all +controversies. To her lawyer, who was conducting a suit that worried +her, she said, "Wind up my case. Do they want my money? I have some, and +what can I do with money better than to buy tranquillity with it?" This +aversion to annoyance often reached the proportions of a very amiable +selfishness. "She has the habit of detesting those who are unhappy," +said the witty Abbe Galiani, "for she does not wish to be so, even by +the sight of the unhappiness of others. She has an impressionable heart; +she is old; she is well; she wishes to preserve her health and her +tranquillity. As soon as she learns that I am happy she will love me to +folly." + +But her generosity was exceptional. "Donner et pardonner" was her +device. Many anecdotes are related of her charitable temper. She had +ordered two marble vases of Bouchardon. One was broken before reaching +her. Learning that the man who broke it would lose his place if it were +known, and that he had a family of four children, she immediately sent +word to the atelier that the sculptor was not to be told of the loss, +adding a gift of twelve francs to console the culprit for his fright. +She often surprised her impecunious friends with the present of some bit +of furniture she thought they needed, or an annuity delicately bestowed. +"I have assigned to you fifteen thousand francs," she said one day to +the Abbe Morellet; "do not speak of it and do not thank me." "Economy is +the source of independence and liberty" was one of her mottoes, and she +denied herself the luxuries of life that she might have more to spend in +charities. But she never permitted any one to compromise her, and often +withheld her approbation where she was free with her purse. To do all +the good possible and to respect all the convenances were her cardinal +principles. Marmontel was sent to the Bastille under circumstances that +were rather creditable than otherwise; but it was a false note, and +she was never quite the same to him afterwards. She wept at her own +injustice, schemed for his election to the Academy, and scolded him for +his lack of diplomacy; but the little cloud was there. When the Sorbonne +censured his Belisarius her friendship could no longer bear the strain, +and, though still received at her dinners, he ceased to live in her +house. + +Her dominant passion seems to have been love of consideration, if a calm +and serene, but steadily persistent, purpose can be called a passion. No +trained diplomatist ever understood better the world with which he had +to deal, or managed more adroitly to avoid small antagonisms. It was +her maxim not to create jealousy by praising people, nor irritation by +defending them. If she wished to say a kind word, she dwelt upon good +qualities that were not contested. She prided herself upon ruling her +life by reason. Sainte-Beuve calls her the Fontenelle of women, but it +was Fontenelle tempered with a heart. + +This "foster-mother of philosophers" evidently wished to make sure of +her own safety, however matters might turn out in the next world. She +had a devotional vein, went to mass privately, had a seat at the Church +of the Capucins, and an apartment for retreat in a convent. During her +last illness the Marquise de la Ferte-Imbault, who did not love her +mother's freethinking friends, excluded them, and sent for a confessor. +Mme. Geoffrin submitted amiably, and said, smiling, "My daughter is like +Godfrey of Bouillon; she wishes to defend my tomb against the infidels." + +Into the composition of her salon she brought the talent of an artist. +We have a glimpse of her in 1748 through a letter from Montesquieu. +She was then about fifty, and had gathered about her a more or less +distinguished company, which was enlarged after the death of Mme. de +Tencin, in the following year. She gave dinners twice a week--one on +Monday for artists, among whom were Vanloo, Vernet, and Boucher; and one +on Wednesday for men of letters. As she believed that women were apt +to distract the conversation, only one was usually invited to dine with +them. Mlle. de Lespinasse, the intellectual peer and friend of these +men, sat opposite her, and aided in conducting the conversation into +agreeable channels. The talent of Mme. Geoffrin seems to have consisted +in telling a story well, in a profound knowledge of people, ready tact, +and the happy art of putting every one at ease. She did not like heated +discussions nor a too pronounced expression of opinion. "She was +willing that the philosophers should remodel the world," says one of her +critics, "on condition that the kingdom of Diderot should come without +disorder or confusion." But though she liked and admired this very free +and eloquent Diderot, he was too bold and outspoken to have a place at +her table. Helvetius, too, fell into disfavor after the censure which +his atheistic DE L'esprit brought upon him; and Baron d'Holbach was +too apt to overstep the limits at which the hostess interfered with her +inevitable "Voila qui est bien." Indeed, she assumed the privilege +of her years to scold her guests if they interfered with the general +harmony or forgot any of the amenities. But her scoldings were very +graciously received as a slight penalty for her favor, and more or +less a measure of her friendship. She graded her courtesies with fine +discrimination, and her friends found the reflection of their success +or failure in her manner of receiving them. Her keen, practical mind +pierced every illusion with merciless precision. She defined a popular +abbe who posed for a bel esprit, as a "fool rubbed all over with wit." +Rulhiere had read in her salon a work on Russia, which she feared might +compromise him, and she offered him a large sum of money to throw it +into the fire. The author was indignant at such a reflection upon +his courage and honor, and grew warmly eloquent upon the subject. She +listened until he had finished, then said quietly, "How much more do you +want, M. Rulhiere?" + +The serene poise of a character without enthusiasms and without +illusions is very well illustrated by a letter to Mme. Necker. After +playfully charging her with being always infatuated, never cool and +reserved, she continues: + +"Do you know, my pretty one, that your exaggerated praises confound +me, instead of pleasing and flattering me? I am always afraid that your +giddiness will evaporate. You will then judge me to be so different from +your preconceived opinion that you will punish me for your own mistake, +and allow me no merit at all. I have my virtues and my good qualities, +but I have also many faults. Of these I am perfectly well aware, and +every day I try to correct them. + +"My dear friend, I beg of you to lessen your excessive admiration. +I assure you that you humiliate me; and that is certainly not your +intention. The angels think very little about me, and I do not trouble +myself about them. Their praise or their blame is indifferent to me, for +I shall not come in their way; but what I do desire is that you should +love me, and that you should take me as you find me." + +Again she assumes her position of mentor and writes: "How is it possible +not to answer the kind and charming letter I have received from you? +But still I reply only to tell you that it made me a little angry. I see +that it is impossible to change anything in your uneasy, restless, and +at the same time weak character." + +Horace Walpole, who met her during his first visit to Paris, and before +his intimacy with Mme. du Deffand had colored his opinions, has left a +valuable pen-portrait of Mme. Geoffrin. In a letter to Gray, in 1766, he +writes: + +"Mme. Geoffrin, of whom you have heard much, is an extraordinary woman, +with more common sense than I almost ever met with, great quickness in +discovering characters, penetrating and going to the bottom of them, +and a pencil that never fails in a likeness, seldom a favorable one. +She exacts and preserves, spite of her birth and their nonsensical +prejudices about nobility, great court and attention. This she acquires +by a thousand little arts and offices of friendship, and by a freedom +and severity which seem to be her sole end for drawing a concourse to +her. She has little taste and less knowledge, but protects artisans +and authors, and courts a few people to have the credit of serving her +dependents. In short, she is an epitome of empire, subsisting by rewards +and punishments." + +Later, when he was less disinterested, perhaps, he writes to another +friend: "Mme. du Deffand hates the philosophers, so you must give them +up to her. She and Mme. Geoffrin are no friends; so if you go thither, +don't tell her of it--Indeed you would be sick of that house whither +all the pretended beaux esprits and false savants go, and where they are +very impertinent and dogmatic." + +The real power of this woman may be difficult to define, but a glance +at her society reveals, at least partly, its secret. Nowhere has the +glamour of a great name more influence than at Paris. A few celebrities +form a nucleus of sufficient attraction to draw all the world, if +they are selected with taste and discrimination. After the death of +Fontenelle, d'Alembert, always witty, vivacious, and original, in spite +of the serious and exact nature of his scientific studies, was perhaps +the leading spirit of this salon. Among its constant habitues were +Helvetius, who put his selfishness into his books, reserving for his +friends the most amiable and generous of tempers; Marivaux, the novelist +and dramatist, whose vanity rivaled his genius, but who represented only +the literary spirit, and did not hesitate to ridicule his companions the +philosophers; the caustic but brilliant and accomplished Abbe Morellet, +who had "his heart in his head and his head in his heart;" the severe +and cheerful Mairan, mathematician, astronomer, physician, musical +amateur, and member of two academies, whose versatile gifts and courtly +manners gave him as cordial a welcome in the exclusive salon at the +Temple as among his philosophical friends; the gay young Marmontel, who +has left so clear and simple a picture of this famous circle and +its gentle hostess; Grimm, who combined the SAVANT and the courtier; +Saint-Lambert, the delicate and scholarly poet; Thomas, grave and +thoughtful, shining by his character and intellect, but forgetting the +graces which were at that time so essential to brilliant success; the +eloquent Abbe Raynal; and the Chevalier de Chastellux, so genial, so +sympathetic, and so animated. To these we may add Galiani, the smallest, +the wittiest, and the most delightful of abbes, whose piercing insight +and Machiavellian subtlety lent a piquant charm to the stories with +which for hours he used to enliven this choice company; Caraccioli, +gay, simple, ingenuous, full of Neapolitan humor, rich in knowledge and +observation, luminous with intelligence and sparkling with wit; and the +Comte de Crentz, the learned and versatile Swedish minister, to whom +nature had "granted the gift of expressing and painting in touches of +fire all that had struck his imagination or vividly seized his soul." +Hume, Gibbon, Walpole, indeed every foreigner of distinction who visited +Paris, lent to this salon the eclat of their fame, the charm of their +wit, or the prestige of their rank. It was such men as these who gave it +so rare a fascination and so lasting a fame. + +A strong vein of philosophy was inevitable, though in this circle of +diplomats and litterateurs there were many counter-currents of opinion. +It was her consummate skill in blending these diverse but powerful +elements, and holding them within harmonious limits, that made the +reputation of the autocratic hostess. The friend of savants and +philosophers, she had neither read nor studied books, but she had +studied life to good purpose. Though superficial herself, she had the +delicate art of putting every one in the most advantageous light by a +few simple questions or words. It was one of her maxims that "the way +not to get tired of people is to talk to them of themselves; at the same +time, it is the best way to prevent them from getting tired of you." +Perhaps Mme. Necker was thinking of her when she compared certain women +in conversation to "light layers of cotton wool in a box packed with +porcelain; we do not pay much attention to them, but if they were taken +away everything would be broken." + +Mme. Geoffrin was always at home in the evening, and there were simple +little suppers to which a few women were invited. The fare was usually +little more than "a chicken, some spinach, and omelet." Among the most +frequent guests were the charming, witty, and spirituelle Comtesse +d'Egmont, daughter of the Duc de Richelieu, who added to the vivacious +and elegant manners of her father an indefinable grace of her own, and a +vein of sentiment that was doubtless deepened by her sad little romance; +the Marquise de Duras, more dignified and discreet; and the beautiful +Comtesse de Brionne, "a Venus who resembled Minerva." These women, with +others who came there, were intellectual complements of the men; some +of them gay and not without serious faults, but adding beauty, rank, +elegance, and the delicate tone of esprit which made this circle so +famous that it was thought worth while to have its sayings and doings +chronicled at Berlin and St. Petersburg. Perhaps its influence was the +more insidious and far reaching because of its polished moderation. The +"let us be agreeable" of Mme. Geoffrin was a potent talisman. + +Among the guests at one time was Stanislas Poniatowski, afterwards King +of Poland. Hearing that he was about to be imprisoned by his creditors, +Mme. Geoffrin came forward and paid his debts. "When I make a statue +of friendship, I shall give it your features," he said to her; "this +divinity is the mother of charity." On his elevation to the throne he +wrote to her, "Maman, your son is king. Come and see him." This led to +her famous journey when nearly seventy years of age. It was a series of +triumphs at which no one was more surprised than herself, and they were +all due, she modestly says, "to a few mediocre dinners and some petits +soupers." One can readily pardon her for feeling flattered, when the +emperor alights from his carriage on the public promenade at Vienna and +pays her some pretty compliments, "just as if he had been at one of our +little Wednesday suppers." There is a charm in the simple naivete with +which she tells her friends how cordially Maria Theresa receives her at +Schonbrunn, and she does not forget to add that the empress said she had +the most beautiful complexion in the world. She repeats quite naturally, +and with a slight touch of vanity perhaps, the fine speeches made to +her by the "adorable Prince Galitzin" and Prince Kaunitz, "the first +minister in Europe," both of whom entertained her. But she would have +been more than a woman to have met all this honor with indifference. No +wonder she believes herself to be dreaming. "I am known here much better +than in the Rue St. Honore," she writes, "and in a fashion the most +flattering. My journey has made an incredible sensation for the last +fifteen days." To be sure, she spells badly for a woman who poses as the +friend of litterateurs and savants, and says very little about anything +that does not concern her own fame and glory. But she does not cease to +remember her friends, whom she "loves, if possible, better than ever." +Nor does she forget to send a thousand caresses to her kitten. + +A messenger from Warsaw meets her with everything imaginable that can +add to the comfort and luxury of her journey, and on reaching there +she finds a room fitted up for her like her own boudoir in the Rue +St. Honore. She accepts all this consideration with great modesty and +admirable good sense. "This tour finished," she writes to d'Alembert, +"I feel that I shall have seen enough of men and things to be convinced +that they are everywhere about the same. I have my storehouse of +reflections and comparisons well furnished for the rest of my life. All +that I have seen since leaving my Penates makes me thank God for having +been born French and a private person." + +The peculiar charm which attracted such rare and marked attentions to +a woman not received at her own court, and at a time when social +distinctions were very sharply defined, eludes analysis, but it seems +to have lain largely in her exquisite sense of fitness, her excellent +judgment, her administrative talent, the fine tact and penetration which +enabled her to avoid antagonism, an instinctive knowledge of the art of +pleasing, and a kind but not too sensitive heart. These qualities are +not those which appeal to the imagination or inspire enthusiasm. We +find in her no spark of that celestial flame which gives intellectual +distinction. In her amiability there seems to be a certain languor of +the heart. Her kindness has a trace of calculation, and her friendship +of self-consciousness. Of spontaneity she has none. "She loved nothing +passionately, not even virtue," says one of her critics. There was a +certain method in her simplicity. She carried to perfection the art of +savoir vivre, and though she claimed freedom of thought and action, it +was always strictly within conventional limits. + +She suffered the fate of all celebrities in being occasionally attacked. +The role assigned to her in the comedy of "The Philosophers" was not a +flattering one, and some criticisms of Montesquieu wounded her so deeply +that she succeeded in having them suppressed. She did not escape the +shafts of envy, nor the sneers of the grandes dames who did not relish +her popularity. But these were only spots on the surface of a singularly +brilliant career. Calm, reposeful, charitable, without affectation or +pretension, but not untouched by ennui, the malady of her time, she held +her position to the end of a long life which closed in 1777. + +"Alas," said d'Alembert, who had been in the habit of spending his +mornings with Mlle. de Lespinasse until her death, and his evenings with +Mme. Geoffrin, "I have neither evenings nor mornings left." + +"She has made for fifty years the charm of her society," said the Abbe +Morellet. "She has been constantly, habitually virtuous and benevolent." +Her salon brought authors and artists into direct relation with +distinguished patrons, especially foreigners, and thus contributed +largely to the spread of French art and letters. It was counted among +"the institutions of the eighteenth century." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. ULTRA-PHILOSOPHICAL SALONS--MADAME D'EPINAY + +_Mme. de Graffigny--Baron d'Holbach--Mme. d'Epinay's Portrait of +Herself--Mlle. Quinault--Rousseau--La Chevrette--Grimm--Diderot--The +Abbe Galiani--Estimate of Mme. d'Epinay_ + +A few of the more radical and earnest of the philosophers rarely, if +ever, appeared at the table of Mme. Geoffrin. They would have brought +too much heat to this company, which discussed everything in a light +and agreeable fashion. Perhaps, too, these free and brilliant spirits +objected to the leading-strings which there held every one within +prescribed limits. They could talk more at their ease at the weekly +dinners of Baron d'Holbach, in the salons of Mme. Helvetius, Mme. de +Marchais, or Mme. de Graffigny, in the Encyclopedist coterie of Mlle. de +Lespinasse, or in the liberal drawing room of Mme. d'Epinay, who held +a more questionable place in the social world, but received much good +company, Mme. Geoffrin herself included. + +Mme. de Graffigny is known mainly as a woman of letters whose life had +in it many elements of tragedy. Her youth was passed in the brilliant +society of the little court at Luneville. She was distantly related +to Mme. du Chatelet, and finally took refuge from the cruelties of a +violent and brutal husband in the "terrestrial paradise" at Cirey. La +belle Emilie was moved to sympathy, and Voltaire wept at the tale of +her sorrows. A little later she became a victim to the poet's sensitive +vanity. He accused her of sending to a friend a copy of his "Pucello," +an unfinished poem which was kept under triple lock, though parts of it +had been read to her. Her letters were opened, her innocent praises were +turned against her, there was a scene, and Cirey was a paradise no more. +She came to Paris, ill, sad, and penniless. She wrote "Les Lettres +d'une Peruvienne" and found herself famous. She wrote "Cenie," which was +played at the Comedie Francaise, and her success was established. Then +she wrote another drama. "She read it to me," says one of her friends; +"I found it bad; she found me ill-natured. It was played; the public +died of ennui and the author of chagrin." "I am convinced that +misfortune will follow me into paradise," she said. At all events, it +seems to have followed her to the entrance. + +Her salon was more or less celebrated. The freedom of the conversations +may be inferred from the fact that Helvetius gathered there the +materials for his "De l'Esprit," a book condemned by the Pope, the +Parliament, and the Sorbonne. It was here also that he found his +charming wife, a niece of Mme. de Graffigny, and the light of her house +as afterwards of his own. + +A more permanent interest is attached to the famous dinners of Baron +d'Holbach, where twice a week men like Diderot, Helvetius, Grimm, +Marmontel, Duclos, the Abbe Galiani and for a time Buffon and Rousseau, +met in an informal way to enjoy the good cheer and good wines of this +"maitre d'hotel of philosophy," and discuss the affairs of the universe. +The learned and free-thinking baron was agreeable, kind, rich, and +lavish in his hospitality, but without pretension. "He was a man simply +simple," said Mme. Geoffrin. We have many pleasant glimpses of his +country place at Grandval, with its rich and rare collections, its +library, its pictures, its designs, and of the beautiful wife who turned +the heads of some of the philosophers, whom, as a rule, she did not like +overmuch, though she received them so graciously. "We dine well and a +long time," wrote Diderot. "We talk of art, of poetry, of philosophy, +and of love, of the greatness and vanity of our own enterprises... Of +gods and kings, of space and time, of death and of life." + +"They say things to make a thunderbolt strike the house a hundred times, +if it struck for that," said the Abbe Morellet. + +Among the few women admitted to these dinners was Mme. d'Epinay, for +whom d'Holbach, as well as his amiable wife, always entertained the +warmest friendship. This woman, whose position was not assured enough +to make people overlook her peculiar and unfortunate domestic +complications, has told the story of her own life in her long and +confidential correspondence with Grimm, Galiani, and Voltaire. The +senseless follies of a cruel and worthless husband, who plunged her from +great wealth into extreme poverty, and of whom Diderot said that "he +had squandered two millions without saying a good word or doing a good +action," threw her into intimate relations with Grimm; this brought her +into the center of a famous circle. Her letters give us a clear but far +from flattering reflection of the manners of the time. She unveils the +bare and hard facts of her own experience, the secret workings of +her own soul. The picture is not a pleasant one, but it is full +of significance to the moralist, and furnishes abundant matter for +psychological study. + +The young girl, who had entered upon the scene about 1725, under the +name of Louise Florence Petronille-Tardieu d'Esclavelles, was married at +twenty to her cousin. It seems to have been really a marriage of love; +but the weak and faithless M. d'Epinay was clearly incapable of truth or +honor, and the torturing process by which the confiding young wife was +disillusioned, the insidious counsel of a false and profligate friend, +with the final betrayal of a tender and desolate heart, form a chapter +as revolting as it is pathetic. The fresh, lively, pure-minded, +sensitive girl, whose intellect had been fed on Rollin's history and +books of devotion, who feared the dissipations of the gay world and +shrank with horror from the rouge which her frivolous husband compelled +her to put on, learned her lesson rapidly in the school of suffering. + +At thirty she writes of herself, after the fashion of the pen portraits +of the previous century: + +"I am not pretty; yet I am not plain. I am small, thin, very well +formed. I have the air of youth, without freshness, but noble, sweet, +lively, spirituelle, and interesting. My imagination is tranquil. My +mind is slow, just, reflective, and inconsequent. I have vivacity, +courage, firmness, elevation, and excessive timidity. I am true without +being frank. Timidity often gives me the appearance of dissimulation and +duplicity; but I have always had the courage to confess my weakness, in +order to destroy the suspicion of a vice which I have not. I have the +finesse to attain my end and to remove obstacles; but I have none +to penetrate the purposes of others. I was born tender and sensible, +constant and no coquette. I love retirement, a life simple and private; +nevertheless I have almost always led one contrary to my taste. Bad +health, and sorrows sharp and repeated, have given a serious cast to my +character, which is naturally very gay." + +Her first entrance into the world in which wit reigned supreme was in +the free but elegant salon of Mlle. Quinault, an actress of the Comedie +Francaise, who had left the stage, and taking the role of a femme +d'esprit, had gathered around her a distinguished and fashionable +coterie. This woman, who had received a decoration for a fine motet +she had composed for the queen's chapel, who was loved and consulted by +Voltaire, and who was the best friend of d'Alembert after the death of +Mlle. de Lespinasse, represented the genius of esprit and finesse. She +was the companion of princes, the adoration of princesses, the oracle of +artists and litterateurs, the model of elegance, and the embodiment of +social success. It did not matter much that the tone of her salon was +lax; it was fashionable. "It distilled dignity, la convenance, and +formality," says the Marquise de Crequi, who relates an anecdote that +aptly illustrates the glamour which surrounded talent at that time. She +was taken by her grandmother to see Mlle. Quinault, and by some chance +mistook her for Mlle. de Vertus, who was so much flattered by her +innocent error that she left her forty thousand francs, when she died a +few months later. + +Mme. d'Epinay was delighted to find herself in so brilliant a world, and +was greatly fascinated by its wit, though she was not sure that those +who met there did not "feel too much the obligation of having it." But +she caught the spirit, and transferred it, in some degree, to her own +salon, which was more literary than fashionable. Here Francueil presents +"a sorry devil of an author who is as poor as Job, but has wit and +vanity enough for four." This is Rousseau, the most conspicuous figure +in the famous coterie. "He is a man to whom one should raise altars," +wrote Mme. d'Epinay. "And the simplicity with which he relates his +misfortunes! I have still a pitying soul. It is frightful to imagine +such a man in misery." She fitted up for him the Hermitage, and did a +thousand kind things which entitled her to a better return than he gave. +There is a pleasant moment when we find him the center of an admiring +circle at La Chevrette, falling madly in love with her clever and +beautiful sister-in-law the Comtesse d'Houdetot, writing "La Nouvelle +Heloise" under the inspiration of this passion, and dreaming in the +lovely promenades at Montmorency, quite at peace with the world. But the +weeping philosopher, who said such fine things and did such base ones, +turned against his benefactress and friend for some imaginary offense, +and revenged himself by false and malicious attacks upon her character. +The final result was a violent quarrel with the whole circle of +philosophers, who espoused the cause of Mme. d'Epinay. This little +history is interesting, as it throws so much light upon the intimate +relations of some of the greatest men of the century. Behind the +perpetual round of comedies, readings, dinners, music, and conversation, +there is a real comedy of passion, intrigue, jealousy, and hidden misery +that destroys many illusions. + +Mme. d'Epinay has been made familiar to us by Grimm, Galiani, Diderot, +Rousseau, and Voltaire. Perhaps, on the whole, Voltaire has given us +the most agreeable impression. She was ill of grief and trouble, and had +gone to Geneva to consult the famous Tronchin when she was thrown into +more or less intimacy with the Sage of Ferney. He invited her to dinner +immediately upon her arrival. "I was much fatigued, besides having +confessed and received communion the evening before. I did not find it +fitting to dine with Voltaire two days afterward," writes this curiously +sensitive friend of the free-thinkers. He addresses her as ma belle +philosophe, speaks of her as "an eagle in a cage of gauze," and praises +in verse her philosophy, her esprit, her heart, and her "two great black +eyes." He weeps at her departure, tells her she is "adored at Delices, +adored at Paris, adored present and absent." But "the tears of a poet do +not always signify grief," says Mme. d'Epinay. + +There is a second period in her life, when she introduces us again to +the old friends who always sustained her, and to many new ones. The +world that meets in her salon later is much the same as that which dines +with Baron d'Holbach. To measure its attractions one must recall the +brilliancy and eloquence of Diderot; the wit, the taste, the learning, +the courtly accomplishments of Grimm; the gaiety and originality of +d'Holbach, who had "read everything and forgotten nothing interesting;" +the sparkling conversation of the most finished and scholarly diplomats +in Europe, many of whom we have already met at the dinners of Mme. +Geoffrin. They discuss economic questions, politics, religion, art, +literature, with equal freedom and ardor. They are as much divided on +the merits of Gluck's "Armida" and Piccini's "Roland" as upon taxes, +grains, and the policy of the government. The gay little Abbe Galiani +brings perennial sunshine with the inexhaustible wit and vivacity that +lights his clear and subtle intellect. "He is a treasure on rainy days," +says Diderot. "If they made him at the toy shops everybody would want +one for the country." "He was the nicest little harlequin that Italy has +produced," says Marmontel, "but upon the shoulders of this harlequin +was the head of a Machiavelli. Epicurean in his philosophy and with a +melancholy soul, seeing everything on the ridiculous side, there was +nothing either in politics or morals apropos of which he had not a good +story to tell, and these stories were always apt and had the salt of an +unexpected and ingenious allusion." He did not accept the theories of +his friends, which he believed would "cause the bankruptcy of knowledge, +of pleasure, and of the human intellect." "Messieurs les philosophes, +you go too fast," he said. "I begin by saying that if I were pope I +would put you in the Inquisition, and if I were king of France, into +the Bastille." He saw the drift of events; but if he reasoned like a +philosopher he laughed like a Neapolitan. What matters tomorrow if we +are happy today! + +The familiar notes and letters of these clever people picture for us +a little world with its small interests, its piques, its loves, its +friendships, its quarrels, and its hatreds. Diderot, who refused for +a long time to meet Mme. d'Epinay, but finally became an intimate +and lasting friend, touches often, in his letters to Sophie, upon the +pleasant informality of La Chevrette, with its curious social episodes +and its emotional undercurrents. He does not forget even the pigeons, +the geese, the ducks, and the chickens, which he calls his own. Pouf, +the dog, has his place here too, and flits often across the scene, a +tiny bit of reflected immortality. These letters represent the bold +iconoclast on his best side, kind, simple in his tastes, and loyal +to his friends. He was never at home in the great world. He was seen +sometimes in the salons of Mme. Geoffrin, Mme. Necker, and others, but +he made his stay as brief as possible. Mme. d'Epinay succeeded better +in attaching him to her coterie. There was more freedom, and he probably +had a more sympathetic audience. "Four lines of this man make me +dram more and occupy me more," she said, "than a complete work of our +pretended beaux esprits." Grimm, too, was a central figure here, and +Grimm was his friend. But over his genius, as over that of Rousseau, +there was the trail of the serpent. The breadth of his thought, the +brilliancy of his criticisms, the eloquence of his style were clouded +with sensualism. "When you see on his forehead the reflection of a ray +from Plato," says Sainte-Beuve, "do not trust it; look well, there is +always the foot of a satyr." + +It was to the clear and penetrating intellect of Grimm, with its vein +of German romanticism, that Mme. d'Epinay was indebted for the finest +appreciation and the most genuine sympathy. "Bon Dieu," he writes to +Diderot, "how this woman is to be pitied! I should not be troubled +about her if she were as strong as she is courageous. She is sweet and +trusting; she is peaceful, and loves repose above all; but her situation +exacts unceasingly a conduct forced and out of her character; nothing +so wears and destroys a machine naturally frail." She aided him in his +correspondance litteraire; wrote a treatise on education, which had the +honor of being crowned by the Academy; and, among other things of more +or less value, a novel, which was not published until long after her +death. With many gifts and attractions, kind, amiable, forgiving, and +essentially emotional, Mme. d'Epinay seems to have been a woman of weak +and undecided character, without sufficient strength of moral fiber to +sustain herself with dignity under the unfortunate circumstances which +surrounded her. "It depends only upon yourself," said Grimm, "to be the +happiest and most adorable creature in the world, provided that you do +not put the opinions of others before your own, and that you know how to +suffice for yourself." Her education had not given her the worldly tact +and address of Mme. Geoffrin, and her salon never had a wide celebrity; +but it was a meeting place of brilliant and radical thinkers, of the men +who have perhaps done the most to change the face of the modern world. +In a quiet and intimate way, it was one among the numberless forces +which were gathering and gaining momentum to culminate in the +great tragedy of the century. Mme. d'Epinay did not live to see the +catastrophe. Worn out by a life of suffering and ill health, she died in +1783. + +Whatever her faults and weaknesses may have been, the woman who could +retain the devoted affection of so brilliant and versatile a man +as Grimm for twenty-seven years, who was the lifelong friend and +correspondent of Galiani and Voltaire, and the valued confidante +of Diderot, must have had some rare attractions of mind, heart, or +character. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. SALONS OF THE NOBLESSE--MADAME DU DEFFAND + +_La Marechale de Luxembourg--The Temple--Comtesse de Boufflers-- Mme. +du Deffand--Her Convent Salon--Rupture with Mlle. de Lespinasse--Her +Friendship with Horace Walpole--Her brilliancy and Her Ennui_ + +While the group of iconoclasts who formed the nucleus of the +philosophical salons was airing its theories and enjoying its increasing +vogue, there was another circle which played with the new ideas more or +less as a sort of intellectual pastime, but was aristocratic au fond, +and carefully preserved all the traditions of the old noblesse. One met +here the philosophers and men of letters, but they did not dominate; +they simply flavored these coteries of rank and fashion. In this age of +esprit no salon was complete without its sprinkling of literary men. We +meet the shy and awkward Rousseau even in the exclusive drawing room of +the clever and witty but critical Marechale de Luxembourg, who presides +over a world in which the graces rule--a world of elegant manners, of +etiquette, and of forms. This model of the amenities, whose gay and +faulty youth ripened into a pious and charitable age, was at the head +of that tribunal which pronounced judgment upon all matters relating +to society. She was learned in genealogy, analyzed and traced to their +source the laws of etiquette, possessed a remarkable memory, and without +profound education, had learned much from conversation with the savants +and illustrious men who frequented her house. Her wit was proverbial, +and she was never at a loss for a ready repartee or a spicy anecdote. +She gave two grand suppers a week. Mme. de Genlis, who was often there, +took notes, according to her custom, and has left an interesting record +of conversations that were remarkable not only for brilliancy, but for +the thoughtful wisdom of the comments upon men and things. La Harpe +read a great part of his works in this salon. Rousseau entertained the +princely guests at Montmorency with "La Nouvelle Heloise" and "Emile," +and though never quite at ease, his democratic theories did not prevent +him from feeling greatly honored by their friendly courtesies; indeed, +he loses his usual bitterness when speaking of this noble patroness. +He says that her conversation was marked by an exquisite delicacy that +always pleased, and her flatteries were intoxicating because they were +simple and seemed to escape without intention. + +Mme. de Luxembourg was an autocrat, and did not hesitate to punish +errors in taste by social ostracism. "Erase the name of Monsieur +-- -- from my list," she said, as a gentleman left after relating a +scandalous story reflecting upon some one's honor. It was one of her +theories that "society should punish what the law cannot attack." +She maintained that good manners are based upon noble and delicate +sentiments, that mutual consideration, deference, politeness, +gentleness, and respect to age are essential to civilization. The +disloyal, the ungrateful bad sons, bad brothers, bad husbands, and +bad wives, whose offenses were serious enough to be made public, she +banished from that circle which called itself la bonne compagnie. It +must be admitted, however, that it was les convenances rather than +morality which she guarded. + +A rival of this brilliant salon, and among the most celebrated of +its day, was the one at the Temple. The animating spirit here was the +amiable and vivacious Comtesse de Boufflers, celebrated in youth for +her charms, and later for her talent. She was dame d'honneur to the +Princesse de Conti, wife of the Duc d'Orleans, who was noted for her +caustic wit, as well as for her beauty. It was in the salon of his +clever and rather capricious sister that the learned Prince de Conti +met her and formed the intimacy that ended only with his life. She was +called the idole of the Temple, and her taste for letters gave her also +the title of Minerve savante. She wrote a tragedy which was said to be +good, though she would never let it go out of her hands, and has been +immortalized by Rousseau, with whom she corresponded for sixteen years. +Hume also exchanged frequent letters with her, and she tried in vain to +reconcile these two friends after their quarrel. President Henault said +he had never met a woman of so much esprit, adding that "outside all her +charms she had character." For society she had a veritable passion. She +said that when she loved England the best she could not think of staying +there without "taking twenty-four or twenty-five intimate friends, +and sixty or eighty others who were absolutely necessary to her." Her +conversation was full of fire and brilliancy, and her gaiety of heart, +her gracious manners, and her frank appreciation of the talent of others +added greatly to her piquant fascination. She delighted in original +turns of expression, which were sometimes far-fetched and artificial. +One of her friends said that "she made herself the victim of +consideration, and lost it by running after it." Her rule of life may +be offered as a model. "In conduct, simplicity and reason; in manners, +propriety and decorum; in actions, justice and generosity; in the use +of wealth, economy and liberality; in conversation, clearness, truth, +precision; in adversity, courage and pride; in prosperity, modesty +and moderation." Unfortunately she did not put all this wisdom into +practice, if we judge her by present standards. We have a glimpse of the +famous circle over which she presided in an interesting picture formerly +at Versailles, now at the Louvre. The figures are supposed to be +portraits. Among others are Mme. de Luxembourg, the Comtesse de +Boufflers, and the lovely but ill-fated young stepdaughter, Amelie, +Comtesse de Lauzun, to whom she is so devoted; the beautiful Comtesse +d'Egmont, Mme. de Beauvan, President Henault, the witty Pont de Veyle, +Mairan, the versatile scientist, and the Prince de Conti. In the midst +of this group the little Mozart, whose genius was then delighting +Europe, sits at the harpsichord. The chronicles of the time give us +pleasant descriptions of the literary diversions of this society, which +met by turns at the Temple and Ile-Adam. But the Prince as well as +the clever Comtesse had a strong leaning towards philosophy, and +the amusements were interspersed with much conversation of a serious +character that has a peculiar interest today when read by the light of +after events. + +Among the numerous salons of the noblesse there was one which calls for +more than a passing word, both on account of its world-wide fame and the +exceptional brilliancy of its hostess. Though far less democratic and +cosmopolitan than that of Mme. Geoffrin, with which it was contemporary, +its character was equally distinct and original. Linked by birth +with the oldest of the nobility, allied by intellect with the most +distinguished in the world of letters, Mme. du Deffand appropriated the +best in thought, while retaining the spirit of an elegant and refined +social life. She was exclusive by nature and instinct, as well as by +tradition, and could not dispense with the arts and amenities which +are the fruit of generations of ease; but the energy and force of her +intellect could as little tolerate shallowness and pretension, however +disguised beneath the graceful tyranny of forms. Her salon offers a sort +of compromise between the freedom of the philosophical coteries and the +frivolities of the purely fashionable ones. It included the most noted +of the men of letters--those who belonged to the old aristocracy and a +few to whom nature had given a prescriptive title of nobility--as +well as the flower of the great world. Her sarcastic wit, her clear +intelligence, and her rare conversational gifts added a tone of +individuality that placed her salon at the head of the social centers +of the time in brilliancy and in esprit. In this group of wits, +LITTERATEURS, philosophers, statesmen, churchmen, diplomats, and men of +rank, Mme. du Deffand herself is always the most striking figure. The +art of self-suppression she clearly did not possess. But the art of so +blending a choice society that her own vivid personality was a pervading +note of harmony she had to an eminent degree. She could easily have +made a mark upon her time through her intellectual gifts without the +factitious aid of the men with whom her name is associated. But society +was her passion society animated by intellect, sparkling with wit, and +expressing in all its forms the art instincts of her race. She never +aspired to authorship, but she has left a voluminous correspondence in +which one reads the varying phases of a singularly capricious character. +In her old age she found refuge from a devouring ennui in writing her +own memoirs. Merciless to herself as to others, she veils nothing, +revealing her frailties with a freedom that reminds one of Rousseau. + +It is not the portrait of an estimable woman that we can paint from +these records; but in her intellectual force, her social gifts, and her +moral weakness she is one of the best exponents of an age that trampled +upon the finest flowers of the soul in the blind pursuit of pleasure and +the cynical worship of a hard and unpitying realism. Living from 1697 +to 1780, she saw the train laid for the Revolution, and died in time to +escape its horrors. She traversed the whole experience of the women +of her world with the independence and abandon of a nature that was +moderate in nothing. It is true she felt the emptiness of this arid +existence, and had an intellectual perception of its errors, but she saw +nothing better. "All conditions appear to me equally unhappy, from the +angel to the oyster," is the burden of her hopeless refrain. + +She reveals herself to us as two distinct characters. The one best known +is hard, bitter, coldly analytic, and mocks at everything bordering upon +sentiment or feeling. The other, which underlies this, and of which +we have rare glimpses, is frank, tender, loving even to weakness, and +forever at war with the barrenness of a period whose worst faults +she seems to have embodied, and whose keenest penalties she certainly +suffered. + +Voltaire, the lifelong friend whom she loved, but critically measured, +was three years old when she was born; Mme. de Sevigne had been dead +nearly a year. Of a noble family in Burgundy, Marie de Vichy-Chamroud +was brought to Paris at six years of age and placed in the convent of +St. Madeleine de Traisnel, where she was educated after the superficial +fashion which she so much regrets in later years. She speaks of herself +as a romantic, imaginative child, but she began very early to shock +the pious sisters by her dawning skepticism. One of the nuns had a wax +figure of the infant Jesus, which she discovered to have been a doll +formerly dressed to represent the Spanish fashions to Anne of Austria. +This was the first blow to her illusions, and had a very perceptible +influence upon her life. She pronounced it a deception. Eight days of +solitude with a diet of bread and water failed to restore her reverence. +"It does not depend upon me to believe or disbelieve," she said. The +eloquent and insinuating Massillon was called in to talk with her. +"She is charming," was his remark, as he left her after two hours of +conversation; adding thoughtfully, "Give her a five-cent catechism." + +Skeptical by nature and saturated with the free-thinking spirit of +the time, she reasoned that all religion was au fond, only paganism +disguised. In later years, when her isolated soul longed for some +tangible support, she spoke regretfully of the philosophic age which +destroyed beliefs by explaining and analyzing everything. + +But a beautiful, clever, high-spirited girl of sixteen is apt to feel +her youth all suffering. It is certain that she had no inclination +towards the life of a religieuse, and the country quickly became +insupportable after her return to its provincial society. Ennui took +possession of her. She was glad even to go to confessional, for the sake +of telling her thoughts to some one. She complained bitterly that +the life of women compelled dependence upon the conduct of others, +submission to all ills and all consequences. Long afterwards she said +that she would have married the devil if he had been clothed as a +gentleman and assured her a moderate life. But a husband was at last +found for her, and merely to escape the monotony of her secluded +existence, she was glad, at twenty-one, to become the wife of the +Marquis du Deffand--a good but uninteresting man, much older than +herself. + +Brilliant, fascinating, restless, eager to see and to learn, she felt +herself in her element in the gay world of Paris. She confessed that, +for the moment, she almost loved her husband for bringing her there. +But the moment was a short one. They did not even settle down to what +a witty Frenchman calls the "politeness of two indifferences." It is a +curious commentary upon the times, that the beautiful but notorious Mme. +de Parabere, who introduced her at once into her own unscrupulous world +and the petits soupers of the Regent, condoled with the young bride +upon her marriage, regretting that she had not taken the easy vows of a +chanoinesse, as Mme. de Tencin had done. "In that case," she said, "you +would have been free; well placed everywhere; with the stability of a +married woman; a revenue which permits one to live and accept aid from +others; the independence of a widow, without the ties which a family +imposes; unquestioned rank, which you would owe to no one; indulgence, +and impunity. For these advantages there is only the trouble of wearing +a cross, which is becoming; black or gray habits, which can be made as +magnificent as one likes; a little imperceptible veil, and a knitting +sheath." + +Under such teaching she was not long in taking her own free and +independent course, which was reckless even in that age of laxity. At +her first supper at the Palais Royal she met Voltaire and fascinated +the Regent, though her reign lasted but a few days. The counsels of her +aunt, the dignified Duchesse de Luynes, availed nothing. Her husband was +speedily sent off on some mission to the provinces and she plunged +into the current. Once afterwards, in a fit of ennui, she recalled him, +frankly stating her position. But she quickly wearied of him again, grew +dull, silent, lost her vivacity, and fell into a profound melancholy. +Her friend Mme. de Parabere took it upon herself to explain to him the +facts, and he kindly relieved her forever of his presence, leaving a +touching and pathetic letter which gave her a moment of remorse in spite +of her lightened heart. This sin against good taste the Parisian world +could not forgive, and even her friends turned against her for a +time. But the Duchesse due Maine came to her aid with an all-powerful +influence, and restored her finally to her old position. For some years +she passed the greater part of her time at Sceaux, and was a favorite at +this lively little court. + +It is needless to trace here the details of a career which gives us +little to admire and much to condemn. It was about 1740 when her salon +became noted as a center for the fashionable and literary world of +Paris. Montesquieu and d'Alembert were then among her intimate friends. +Of the latter she says: "The simplicity of his manners, the purity of +his morals, the air of youth, the frankness of character, joined to all +his talents, astonished at first those who saw him." It is said to have +been through her zeal that he was admitted to the Academy so young. +Among others who formed her familiar circle were her devoted friend +Pont de Veyle; the Chevalier d'Aydie; Formont, the "spirituel idler and +amiable egotist," who was one of the three whom she confesses really to +have loved; and President Henault, who brought always a fund of lively +anecdote and agreeable conversation. This world of fashion and letters, +slightly seasoned with philosophy, is also the world of Mme. de +Luxembourg, of the brilliant Mme. de Mirepoix, of the Prince and +Princesse de Beauvau, and of the lovely Duchesse de Choiseul, a femme +d'esprit and "mistress of all the elegances," whose gentle virtues fall +like a ray of sunlight across the dark pages of this period. It is the +world of elegant forms, the world in which a sin against taste is +worse than a sin against morals, the world which hedges itself in by a +thousand unwritten laws that save it from boredom. + +After the death of the Duchesse du Maine, Mme. du Deffand retired to the +little convent of St. Joseph, where, after the manner of many women of +rank with small fortunes, she had her menage and received her friends. +"I have a very pretty apartment," she writes to Voltaire; "very +convenient; I only go out for supper. I do not sleep elsewhere, and I +make no visits. My society is not numerous, but I am sure it will please +you; and if you were here you would make it yours. I have seen for some +time many savants and men of letters; I have not found their society +delightful." The good nuns objected a little to Voltaire at first, but +seem to have been finally reconciled to the visits of the arch-heretic. +At this time Mme. du Deffand had supposably reformed her conduct, if not +her belief. + +She continued to entertain the flower of the nobility and the stars of +the literary and scientific world. But while the most famous of the men +of letters were welcome in her salon, the tone was far from pedantic +or even earnest. It was a society of conventional people, the elite of +fashion and intelligence, who amused themselves in an intellectual but +not too serious way. Montesquieu, who liked those houses in which he +could pass with his every-day wit, said, "I love this woman with all my +heart; she pleases and amuses me; it is impossible to feel a moment's +ennui in her company." Mme. de Genlis, who did not love her expressed +her surprise at finding her so natural and so kindly. Her conversation +was simple and without pretension. When she was pleased, her manners +were even affectionate. She never entered into a discussion, confessing +that she was not sufficiently attached to any opinion to defend it. She +disliked the enthusiasm of the philosophers unless it was hidden behind +the arts of the courtier, as in Voltaire, whose delicate satire charmed +her. Diderot came once, "eyed her epicurean friends," and came no more. +The air was not free enough. When at home she had three or four at +supper every day, often a dozen, and, once a week, a grand supper. All +the intellectual fashions of the time are found here. La Harpe reads a +translation from Sophocles and his own tragedy. Clairon, the actress in +vogue, recites the roles of Phedre and Agrippine, Lekain reads Voltaire, +and Goldoni a comedy of his own, which the hostess finds tiresome. +New books, new plays, the last song, the latest word of the +philosophers--all are talked about, eulogized, or dismissed with a +sarcasm. The wit of Mme. du Deffand is feared, but it fascinates. She +delights in clever repartees and sparkling epigrams. A shaft of wit +silences the most complacent of monologues. "What tiresome book are you +reading?" she said one day to a friend who talked too earnestly and too +long--saving herself from the charge of rudeness by an easy refuge in +her blindness. + +Her criticisms are always severe. "There are only two pleasures for me +in the world--society and reading," she writes. "What society does one +find? Imbeciles, who utter only commonplaces, who know nothing, feel +nothing, think nothing; a few people of talent, full of themselves, +jealous, envious, wicked, whom one must hate or scorn." To some one who +was eulogizing a mediocre man, adding that all the world was of the +same opinion, she replied, "I make small account of the world, Monsieur, +since I perceive that one can divide it into three parts, les trompeurs, +les trompes, et les trompettes." Still it is life alone that interests +her. Though she is not satisfied with people, she has always the hope +that she will be. In literature she likes only letters and memoirs, +because they are purely human; but the age has nothing that pleases her. +"It is cynical or pedantic," she writes to Voltaire; "there is no grace, +no facility, no imagination. Everything is a la glace, hardness without +force, license without gaiety; no talent, much presumption." + +As age came on, and she felt the approach of blindness, she found a +companion in Mlle. de Lespinasse, a young girl of remarkable gifts, who +had an obscure and unacknowledged connection with her family. For +ten years the young woman was a slave to the caprices of her exacting +mistress, reading to her through long nights of wakeful restlessness, +and assisting to entertain her guests. The one thing upon which Mme. du +Deffand most prided herself was frankness. She hated finesse, and had +stipulated that she would not tolerate artifice in any form. It was +her habit to lie awake all night and sleep all day, and as she did not +receive her guests until six o'clock, Mlle. de Lespinasse, whose amiable +character and conversational charm had endeared her at once to the +circle of her patroness, arranged to see her personal friends--among +whom were d'Alembert, Turgot, Chastellux, and Marmontel--in her own +apartments for an hour before the marquise appeared. When this came to +the knowledge of the latter, she fell into a violent rage at what she +chose to regard as a treachery to herself, and dismissed her companion +at once. The result was the opening of a rival salon which carried off +many of her favorite guests, notably d'Alembert, to whom she was much +attached. "If she had died fifteen years earlier, I should not have lost +d'Alembert," was her sympathetic remark when she heard of the death of +Mlle. de Lespinasse. + +But the most striking point in the career of this worldly woman was +her friendship for Horace Walpole. When they first met she was nearly +seventy, blind, ill-tempered, bitter, and hopelessly ennuyee. He was not +yet fifty, a brilliant, versatile man of the world, and saw her only at +long intervals. Their curious correspondence extends over a period of +fifteen years, ending only with her death. + +In a letter to Grayson, after meeting her, he writes: "Mme. du Deffand +is now very old and stone blind, but retains all her vivacity, wit, +memory, judgment, passion, and agreeableness. She goes to operas, plays, +suppers, Versailles; gives supper twice a week; has everything new read +to her; makes new songs and epigrams--aye, admirably--and remembers +every one that has been made these fourscore years. She corresponds with +Voltaire, dictates charming letters to him, contradicts him, is no bigot +to him or anybody, and laughs both at the clergy and the philosophers. +In a dispute, into which she easily falls, she is very warm, and yet +scarce ever in the wrong; her judgment on every subject is as just as +possible; on every point of conduct as wrong as possible; for she is all +love and hatred, passionate for her friends to enthusiasm, still anxious +to be loved--I don't mean by lovers--and a vehement enemy openly." + +The acquaintance thus begun quickly drilled into an intimacy. Friendship +she calls this absorbing sentiment, but it has all the caprices and +inconsistencies of love. Fed by the imagination, and prevented by +separation from wearing itself out, it became the most permanent +interest of her life. There is something curiously pathetic in the +submissive attitude of this blind, aged, but spirited woman--who scoffs +at sentiment and confesses that she could never love anything--towards +the man who criticizes her, scolds her, crushes back her too ardent +feeling, yet calls her his dear old friend, writes her a weekly letter, +and modestly declares that she "loves him better than all France +together." + +The spirit of this correspondence greatly modifies the impression which +her own words, as well as the facts of her career, would naturally give +us. We find in the letters of this period little of the freshness and +spontaneity that lent such a charm to the letters of Mme. de Sevigne and +her contemporaries. Women still write of the incidents of their lives, +the people they meet, their jealousies, their rivalries, their loves, +and their follies; but they think, where they formerly mirrored the +world about them. They analyze, they compare, the criticize, they +formulate their own emotions, they add opinions to facts. The gaiety, +the sparkle, the wit, the play of feeling, is not there. Occasionally +there is the tone of passion, as in the letters of Mlle. Aisse and Mlle. +de Lespinasse, but this is rare. Even passion has grown sophisticated +and deals with phrases. There is more or less artificiality in the +exchange of written thoughts. Mme. du Deffand thinks while she writes, +and what she sees takes always the color of her own intelligence. She +complains of her inability to catch the elusive quality, the clearness, +the flexibility of Mme. de Sevigne, whom she longs to rival because +Walpole so admires her. But if she lacks the vivacity, the simplicity, +the poetic grace of her model, she has qualities not less striking, +though less lovable. Her keen insight is unfailing. With masterly +penetration she grasps the essence of things. No one has portrayed +so concisely and so vividly the men and women of her time. No one has +discriminated between the shades of character with such nicety. No one +has so clearly fathomed the underlying motives of action. No one has +forecast the outcome of theories and events with such prophetic vision. +The note of bitterness and cynicism is always there. The nature of the +woman reveals itself in every line: keen, dry, critical, with clear +ideals which she can never hope to attain. But we feel that she has +stripped off the rags of pretension and brought us face to face with +realities. "All that I can do is to love you with all my heart, as I +have done for about fifty years," wrote Voltaire. "How could I fail to +love you? Your soul seeks always the true; it is a quality as rare as +truth itself." So far does she carry her hatred of insincerity that one +is often tempted to believe she affects a freedom from affectation. "I +am so fatigued with the vanity of others that I avoid the occasion of +having any myself," she writes. Is there not here a trace of the quality +she so despises? + +But beneath all this runs the swift undercurrent of an absorbing +passion. A passion of friendship it may be, but it forces itself through +the arid shells of conventionalism; it is at once the agony and the +consolation of a despairing soul. Heartless, Mme. du Deffand is called, +and her life seems to prove the truth of the verdict; but these letters +throb and palpitate with feeling which she laughs at, but cannot still. +It is the cry of the soul for what it has not; what the world cannot +give; what it has somehow missed out of a cold, hard, restless, and +superficial existence. With a need of loving, she is satisfied with no +one. There is something wanting; even in the affection of her friends. +"Ma grand'maman," she says to the gentle Duchesse de Choiseul, "you KNOW +that you love me, but you do not FEEL it." + +Devouring herself in solitude, she despises the society she cannot do +without. "Men and women appear to me puppets who go, come, talk, laugh, +without thinking, without reflecting, without feeling," she writes. +She confesses that she has a thousand troubles in assembling a choice +company of people who bore her to death. "One sees only masks, one hears +only lies," is her constant refrain. She does not want to live, but is +afraid to die; she says she is not made for this world, but does not +know that there is any other. She tries devotion, but has no taste for +it. Of the light that shines from within upon so many darkened and weary +souls she has no knowledge. Her vision is bounded by the tangible, which +offers only a rigid barrier, against which her life flutters itself +away. She dies as she has lived, with a deepened conviction of the +nothingness of existence. "Spare me three things," she said to her +confessor in her last moments; "let me have no questions, no reasons, +and no sermons." Seeing Wiart, her faithful servitor, in tears, she +remarks pathetically, as if surprised, "You love me then?" "Divert +yourself as much as you can," was her final message to Walpole. "You +will regret me, because one is very glad to know that one is loved." She +commends to his care and affection Tonton, her little dog. + +Strong but not gentle, brilliant but not tender, too penetrating for any +illusions, with a nature forever at war with itself, its surroundings, +and its limitations, no one better points the moral of an age without +faith, without ideals, without the inner light that reveals to hope what +is denied to sense. + +The influence of such a woman with her gifts, her energy, her power, +and her social prestige, can hardly be estimated. It was not in the +direction of the new drift of thought. "I am not a fanatic as to +liberty," she said; "I believe it is an error to pretend that it exists +in a democracy. One has a thousand tyrants in place of one." She had +no breadth of sympathy, and her interests were largely personal; but +in matters of style and form her taste was unerring. Pitiless in her +criticisms, she held firmly to her ideals of clear, elegant, and concise +expression, both in literature and in conversation. She tolerated +no latitudes, no pretension, and left behind her the traditions of a +society that blended, more perfectly, perhaps, than any other of her +time, the best intellectual life with courtly manners and a strict +observance of les convenances. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. MADEMOISELLE DE LESPINASSE + +_A Romantic Career--Companion of Mme. du Deffand--Rival Salons-- +Association with the Encyclopedists--D'Alembert--A Heart +Tragedy--Impassioned Letters--A Type Unique in her Age_ + +Inseparably connected with the name of Mme. du Deffand is that of her +companion and rival, Mlle. de Lespinasse, the gifted, charming, +tender and loving woman who presided over one of the most noted of the +philosophical salons; who was the chosen friend and confidante of the +Encyclopedists; and who died in her prime of a broken heart, leaving the +world a legacy of letters that rival those of Heloise or the poems of +Sappho, as "immortal pictures of passion." The memory of her social +triumphs, remarkable as they were, pales before the singular romances of +her life. In the midst of a cold, critical, and heartless society, +that adored talent and ridiculed sentiment, she became the victim of a +passion so profound, so ardent, so hopeless, that her powerful intellect +bent before it like a reed before a storm. She died of that unsuspected +passion, and years afterwards these letters found the light and told the +tale. + +The contrast between the two women so closely linked together is +complete. Mme. du Deffand belonged to the age of Voltaire by every fiber +of her hard and cynical nature. What she called love was a fire of the +intellect which consumed without warming. It was a violent and fierce +prejudice in favor of those who reflected something of herself. The +tenderness of self-sacrifice was not there. Mlle. de Lespinasse was of +the later era of Rousseau; the era of exaggerated feeling, of emotional +delirium, of romantic dreams; the era whose heroine was the loving and +sentimental "Julie," for whose portrait she might have sat, with a shade +or so less of intellect and brilliancy. But it was more than a romantic +dream that shadowed and shortened the life of Mlle. de Lespinasse. She +had a veritable heart of flame, that consumed not only itself but its +frail tenement as well. + +Julie-Jeanne-Eleonore de Lespinasse, who was born at Lyons in 1732, +had a birthright of sorrow. Her mother, the Comtesse d'Albon, could not +acknowledge this fugitive and nameless daughter, but after the death of +her husband she received her on an inferior footing, had her carefully +educated, and secretly gave her love and care. Left alone and without +resources at fifteen, Julie was taken, as governess and companion, into +the family of a sister who was the wife of Mme. du Deffand's brother. +Here the marquise met her on one of her visits and heard the story of +her sorrows. Tearful, sad, and worn out by humiliations, the young girl +had decided to enter a convent. "There is no misfortune that I have not +experienced," she wrote to Guibert many years afterwards. "Some day, my +friend, I will relate to you things not to be found in the romances +of Prevost nor of Richardson... I ought naturally to devote myself to +hating; I have well fulfilled my destiny; I have loved much and hated +very little. Mon Dieu, my friend, I am a hundred years old." Mme. du +Deffand was struck with her talent and a certain indefinable fascination +of manner which afterwards became so potent. "You have gaiety," she +wrote to her, "you are capable of sentiment; with these qualities you +will be charming so long as you are natural and without pretension." +After a negotiation of some months, Mlle. de Lespinasse went to Paris +to live with her new friend. The history of this affair has been already +related. + +Parisian society was divided into two factions on the merits of the +quarrel--those who censured the ingratitude of the younger woman, and +those who accused the marquise of cruelty and injustice. But many of +the oldest friends of the latter aided her rival. The Marechale de +Luxembourg furnished her apartments in the Rue de Belle-Chasse. The +Duc de Choiseul procured her a pension, and Mme. Geoffrin gave her an +annuity. She carried with her a strong following of eminent men from +the salon of Mme. du Deffand, among whom was d'Alembert, who remained +faithful and devoted to the end. It is said that President Henault even +offered to marry her, but how, under these circumstances, he managed +to continue in the good graces of his lifelong friend, the unforgiving +marquise, does not appear. A letter which he wrote to Mlle. de +Lespinasse throws a direct light upon her character, after making due +allowance for the exaggeration of French gallantry. + +"You are cosmopolitan; you adapt yourself to all situations. The world +pleases you; you love solitude. Society amuses you, but it does not +seduce you. Your heart does not give itself easily. Strong passions are +necessary to you, and it is better so, for they will not return often. +Nature, in placing you in an ordinary position, has given you something +to relieve it. Your soul is noble and elevated, and you will never +remain in a crowd. It is the same with your person. It is distinguished +and attracts attention, without being beautiful. There is something +piquante about you... You have two things which do not often go +together: you are sweet and strong; your gaiety adorns you and relaxes +your nerves, which are too tense... You are extremely refined; you have +divined the world." + +The age of portraits was not quite passed, and the privilege of seeing +one's self in the eyes of one's friends was still accorded, a fact to +which we owe many striking if sometimes rather highly colored pictures. +A few words from d'Alembert are of twofold interest. He writes some +years later: + +"The regard one has for you does not depend alone upon your external +charms; it depends, above all, upon your intellect and your character. +That which distinguishes you in society is the art of saying to every +one the fitting word and that art is very simple with you; it consists +in never speaking of yourself to others, and much of themselves. It is +an infallible means of pleasing; thus you please every one, though +it happens that all the world pleases you; you know even how to avoid +repelling those who are least agreeable." + +This epitome of the art of pleasing may be commended for its wisdom, +aside from the very delightful picture it gives of an amiable and +attractive woman. Again he writes: + +"The excellence of your tone would not be a distinction for one reared +in a court, and speaking only the language she has learned. In you it is +a merit very real and very rare. You have brought it from the seclusion +of a province, where you met no one who could teach you. You were, in +this regard, as perfect the day after your arrival at Paris as you are +today. You found yourself, from the first, as free, as little out of +place in the most brilliant and most critical society as if you had +passed your life there; you have felt its usages before knowing them, +which implies a justness and fineness of tact very unusual, an exquisite +knowledge of les convenances." + +It was her innate tact and social instinct, combined with rare gifts of +intellect and great conversational charm, that gave this woman without +name, beauty, or fortune so exceptional a position, and her salon so +distinguished a place among the brilliant centers of Paris. As she was +not rich and could not give costly dinners, she saw her friends daily +from five to nine, in the interval between other engagements. This +society was her chief interest, and she rarely went out. "If she made an +exception to this rule, all Paris was apprised of it in advance," says +Grimm. The most illustrious men of the State, the Church, the Court, and +the Army, as well as celebrated foreigners and men of letters, were +sure to be found there. "Nowhere was conversation more lively, more +brilliant, or better regulated," writes Marmontel.. . "It was not +with fashionable nonsense and vanity that every day during four hours, +without languor or pause, she knew how to make herself interesting to a +circle of sensible people." Caraccioli went from her salon one evening +to sup with Mme. du Deffand. "He was intoxicated with all the fine works +he had heard read there," writes the latter. "There was a eulogy of +one named Fontaine by M. de Condorcet. There were translations of +Theocritus; tales, fables by I know not whom. And then some eulogies of +Helvetius, an extreme admiration of the esprit and the talents of the +age; in fine, enough to make one stop the ears. All these judgments +false and in the worst taste." A hint of the rivalry between the former +friends is given in a letter from Horace Walpole. "There is at Paris," +he writes, "a Mlle. de Lespinasse, a pretended bel esprit, who was +formerly a humble companion of Mme. du Deffand, and betrayed her and +used her very ill. I beg of you not to let any one carry you thither. +I dwell upon this because she has some enemies so spiteful as to try to +carry off all the English to Mlle. de Lespinasse." + +But this "pretended bel esprit" had socially the touch of genius. Her +ardent, impulsive nature lent to her conversation a rare eloquence that +inspired her listeners, though she never drifted into monologue, and +understood the value of discreet silence. "She rendered the marble +sensible, and made matter talk," said Guibert. Versatile and suggestive +herself, she knew how to draw out the best thoughts of others. Her +swift insight caught the weak points of her friends, and her gracious +adaptation had all the fascination of a subtle flattery. Sad as her +experience had been, she had nevertheless been drawn into the world most +congenial to her tastes. "Ah, how I dislike not to love that which is +excellent," she wrote later. "How difficult I have become! But is it +my fault? Consider the education I have received with Mme. du Deffand. +President Henault, Abbe Bon, the Archbishop of Toulouse, the Archbishop +of Aix, Turgot, d'Alembert, Abbe de Boismont--these are the men who +have taught me to speak, to think, and who have deigned to count me for +something." + +It was men like these who thronged her own salon, together with such +women as the Duchesse d'Anville, friend of the economists, the Duchesse +de Chatillon whom she loved so passionately, and others well-known in +the world of fashion and letters. But its tone was more philosophical +than that of Mme. du Deffand. Though far from democratic by taste or +temperament, she was so from conviction. The griefs and humiliations of +her life had left her peculiarly open to the new social and political +theories which were agitating France. She liked free discussion, and her +own large intelligence, added to her talent for calling out and giving +point to the ideas of others, went far towards making the cosmopolitan +circle over which she presided one of the most potent forces of the +time. Her influence may be traced in the work of the encyclopedists, in +which she was associated, and which she did more than any other woman +to aid and encourage. As a power in the making of reputations and in +the election of members to the Academy she shared with Mme. Geoffrin +the honor of being a legitimate successor of Mme. de Lambert. Chastellux +owed his admission largely to her, and on her deathbed she secured that +of La Harpe. + +But the side of her character which strikes us most forcibly at this +distance of time is the emotional. The personal charm which is always so +large a factor in social success is of too subtle a quality to be +caught in words. The most vivid portrait leaves a divine something to +be supplied by the imagination, and the fascination of eloquence is gone +with the flash of the eye, the modulation of the voice, or some fleeting +grace of manner. But passion writes itself out in indelible characters, +especially when it is a rare and spontaneous overflow from the heart of +a man or woman of genius, whose emotions readily crystallize into form. + +Her friendship for d'Alembert, loyal and devoted as it was, seems to +have been without illusions. It is true she had cast aside every other +consideration to nurse him through a dangerous illness, and as soon as +he was able to be removed, he had taken an apartment in the house where +she lived, which he retained until her death. But he was not rich, +and marriage was not to be thought of. On this point we have his own +testimony. "The one to whom they marry me in the gazettes is indeed a +person respectable in character, and fitted by the sweetness and charm +of her society to render a husband happy," he writes to Voltaire; "but +she is worthy of an establishment better than mine, and there is between +us neither marriage nor love, but mutual esteem, and all the sweetness +of friendship. I live actually in the same house with her, where there +are besides ten other tenants; this is what has given rise to the +rumor." His devotion through so many years, and his profound grief at +her loss, as well as his subsequent words, leave some doubt as to the +tranquillity of his heart, but the sentiments of Mlle. de Lespinasse +seem never to have passed the calm measure of an exalted and sympathetic +friendship. It was remarked that he lost much of his prestige, and +that his society which had been so brilliant, became infinitely more +miscellaneous and infinitely less agreeable after the death of the +friend whose tact and finesse had so well served his ambition. + +Not long after leaving Mme. du Deffand she met the Marquis de Mora, +a son of the Spanish ambassador, who became a constant habitue of her +salon. Of distinguished family and large fortune, brilliant, courtly, +popular, and only twenty-four, he captivated at once the fiery heart +of this attractive woman of thirty-five. It seems to have been a mutual +passion, as during one brief absence of ten days he wrote her twenty-two +letters. But his family became alarmed and made his delicate health a +pretext for recalling him to Spain. Her grief at the separation +enlisted the sympathy of d'Alembert. At her request he procured from his +physician a statement that the climate of Madrid would prove fatal to +M. de Mora, whose health had steadily failed since his return home, and +that if his friends wished to save him they must lose no time in sending +him back to Paris. The young man was permitted to leave at once, but he +died en route at Bordeaux. + +In the meantime Mlle. de Lespinasse, sad and inconsolable, had met M. +Guibert, a man of great versatility and many accomplishments, whose +genius seems to have borne no adequate fruit. We hear of him later +through the passing enthusiasm of Mme. de Stael, who in her youth, made +a pen-portrait of him, sufficiently flattering to account in some +degree for the singular passion of which he became the object. Mlle. de +Lespinasse was forty. He was twenty-nine, had competed for the Academie +Francaise, written a work on military science, also a national tragedy +which was still unpublished. She was dazzled by his brilliancy, and when +she fathomed his shallow nature, as she finally did, it was too late to +disentangle her heart. He was a man of gallantry, and was flattered +by the preference of a woman much in vogue, who had powerful friends, +influence at the Academy, and the ability to advance his interest in +many ways. He clearly condescended to be loved, but his own professions +have little of the true ring. + +Distracted by this new passion on one side, and by remorse for her +disloyalty to the old one, on the other, the health of Mlle. de +Lespinasse, naturally delicate and already undermined, began to succumb +to the hidden struggle. The death of M. de Mora solved one problem; the +other remained. Mr. Guibert wished to advance his fortune by a brilliant +marriage without losing the friend who might still be of service to him. +She sat in judgment upon her own fate, counseled him, aided him in +his choice, even praised the woman who became his wife, hoping still, +perhaps, for some repose in that exaltation of friendship which is often +the last consolation of passionate souls. But she was on a path that led +to no haven of peace. There was only a blank wall before her, and the +lightning impulses of her own heart were forced back to shatter her +frail life. The world was ignorant of this fresh experience; and, +believing her crushed by the death of M. de Mora, sympathized with +her sorrow and praised her fidelity. She tried to sustain a double +role--smiles and gaiety for her friends, tears and agony for the long +hours of solitude. The tension was too much for her. She died shortly +afterwards at the age of forty-three. "If to think, to love, and to +suffer is that which constitutes life, she lived in these few years many +ages," said one who knew her well. + +It was not until many years later, when those most interested were gone, +that the letters to Guibert, which form her chief title to fame, were +collected, and, curiously enough, by his widow. Then for the first +time the true drama of her life was unveiled. It is impossible in a few +extracts to convey an adequate idea of the passion and devotion that +runs through these letters. They touch the entire gamut of emotion, from +the tender melancholy of a lonely soul, the inexpressible sweetness of +self-forgetful love, to the tragic notes or agony and despair. There are +many brilliant passages in them, many flashes of profound thought, many +vivid traits of the people about her; but they are, before all, the +record of a soul that is rapidly burning out its casket. + +"I prefer my misery to all that the world calls happiness or pleasure," +she writes. "I shall die of it, perhaps, but that is better than never +to have lived." + +"I have no more the strength to love," she says again; "my soul fatigues +me, torments me; I am no more sustained by anything. I have every day a +fever; and my physician, who is not the most skillful of men, repeats +to me without ceasing that I am consumed by chagrin, that my pulse, my +respiration, announce an active grief, and he always goes out saying, +'We have no cure for the soul.'" + +"Adieu, my friend," were her last words to him. "If I ever return to +life I shall still love to employ it in loving you; but there is no more +time." + +One could almost wish that these letters had never come to light. A +single grand passion has always a strong hold upon the imagination and +the sympathies, but two passions contending for the mastery verge +upon something quite the reverse of heroic. The note of heart-breaking +despair is tragic enough, but there is a touch of comedy behind it. +Though her words have the fire, the devotion, the abandon of Heloise, +they leave a certain sense of disproportion. One is inclined to wonder +if they do not overtop the feeling. + +D'Alembert was her truest mourner, and fell into a profound melancholy +after her death. "Yes," he said to Marmontel, "she was changed, but I +was not; she no longer lived for me, but I ever lived for her. Since she +is no more, I know not why I exist. Ah! Why have I not still to suffer +those moments of bitterness that she knew so well how to sweeten and +make me forget? Do you remember the happy evenings we passed together? +Now what have I left? I return home, and instead of herself I find only +her shade. This lodging at the Louvre is itself a tomb, which I never +enter but with horror." To this "shade" he wrote two expressive and +well-considered eulogies, which paint in pathetic words the perfections +of his friend and his own desolation. "Adieu, adieu, my dear Julie," +says the heartbroken philosopher; "for these eyes which I should like to +close forever fill with tears in tracing these last lines, and I see +no more the paper on which I write." His grief called out a sympathetic +letter from Frederick the Great which shows the philosophic warrior and +king in a new light. There is a touch of bitter irony in the inflated +eulogy of Guibert, who gave the too-loving woman a death blow in +furthering his ambition, then exhausted his vocabulary in laments and +praises. Perhaps he hoped to borrow from this friendship a fresh ray of +immortality. + +Whatever we may think of the strange inconsistencies of Mlle. de +Lespinasse, she is doubly interesting to us as a type that contrasts +strongly with that of her age. Her exquisite tact, her brilliant +intellect, her conversational gifts, her personal charm made her the +idol of the world in which she lived. Her influence was courted, her +salon was the resort of the most distinguished men of the century, and +while she loved to discuss the great social problems which her +friends were trying to solve, she forgot none of the graces. With the +intellectual strength and grasp of a man, she preserved always the +taste, the delicacy, the tenderness of a woman. Her faults were those of +a strong nature. Her thoughts were clear and penetrating, her expression +was lively and impassioned. But in her emotional power she reached the +proportion of genius. With "the most ardent soul, the liveliest fancy, +the most inflammable imagination that has existed since Sappho," she +represents the embodied spirit of tragedy outlined against the cold, +hard background of a skeptical, mocking, realistic age. "I love in order +to live," she said, "and I live to love." This is the key-note of her +life. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. THE SALON HELVETIQUE + +_The Swiss Pastor's Daughter--Her Social Ambition--Her Friends--Mme. +de Marchais--Mme. d'Houdetot--Duchesse de Lauzun--Character of Mme. +Necker--Death at Coppet--Close of the most Brilliant Period of the +Salons._ + +There was one woman who held a very prominent place in the society of +this period, and who has a double interest for us, though she was not +French, and never quite caught the spirit of the eighteenth-century life +whose attractive forms she loved so well. Mme. Necker, whose history +has been made so familiar through the interesting memoirs of the Comte +d'Haussonville, owes her fame to her marked qualities of intellect and +character rather than to the brilliancy of her social talents. These +found an admirable setting in the surroundings which her husband's +fortune and political career gave her. The Salon Helvetique had a +distinctive color of its own, and was always tinged with the strong +convictions and exalted ideals of the Swiss pastor's daughter, who +passed through this world of intellectual affluence and moral laxity +like a white angel of purity--in it, but not of it. The center of a +choice and lettered circle which included the most noted men and women +of her time, she brought into it not only rare gifts, a fine taste, and +genuine literary enthusiasm, but the fresh charm of a noble character +and a beautiful family life, with the instincts of duty and right +conduct which she inherited from her simple Protestant ancestry. +She lacked a little, however, in the tact, the ease, the grace, the +spontaneity, which were the essential charm of the French women. Her +social talents were a trifle theoretical. "She studied society," says +one of her critics, "as she would a literary question." She had a theory +of conducting a salon, as she had of life in general, and believed +that study would attain everything. But the ability to do a thing +superlatively well is by no means always implied in the knowledge of +how it ought to be done. Social genius is as purely a gift of nature +as poetry or music; and, of all others, it is the most subtle and +indefinable. It was a long step from the primitive simplicity in which +Suzanne Curchod passed her childhood on the borders of Lake Leman to the +complex life of a Parisian salon; and the provincial beauty, whose +fair face, soft blue eyes, dignified but slightly coquettish manner, +brilliant intellect, and sparkling though sometimes rather learned +conversation had made her a local queen, was quick to see her own +shortcomings. She confessed that she had a new language to learn, and +she never fully mastered it. "Mme. Necker has talent, but it is in +a sphere too elevated for one to communicate with her," said Mme. +du Deffand, though she was glad to go once a week to her suppers at +Saint-Ouen, and admitted that in spite of a certain stiffness and +coldness she was better fitted for society than most of the grandes +dames. The salon of Mme. Necker marks a transition point between two +periods, and had two quite distinct phases. One likes best to recall her +in the freshness of her early enthusiasm, when she gave Friday dinners, +modeled after those of Mme. Geoffrin, to men of letters, and received +a larger world in the evening; when her guests were enlivened by +the satire of Diderot, the anecdotes of Marmontel, the brilliancy or +learning of Grimm, d'Alembert, Thomas, Suard, Buffon, the Abbe Raynal, +and other wits of the day; when they discussed the affairs of the +Academy and decided the fate of candidates; when they listened to the +recitations of Mlle. Clairon, and the works of many authors known and +unknown. It is interesting to recall that "Paul and Virginia" was +first read here. But there was apt to be a shade of stiffness, and the +conversation had sometimes too strong a flavor of pedantry. "No one +knows better or feels more sensibly than you, my dear and very +amiable friend," wrote Mme. Geoffrin, "the charm of friendship and its +sweetness; no one makes others experience them more fully. But you will +never attain that facility, that ease, and that liberty which give to +society its perfect enjoyment." The Abbe Morellet complained of the +austerity that always held the conversation within certain limits, and +the gay little Abbe Galiani found fault with Mme. Necker's coldness and +reserve, though he addresses her as his "Divinity" after his return to +Naples, and his racy letters give us vivid and amusing pictures of these +Fridays, which in his memory are wholly charming. + +In spite of her firm religious convictions, Mme. Necker cordially +welcomed the most extreme of the philosophers. "I have atheistic +friends," she said. "Why not? They are unfortunate friends." But her +admiration for their talents by no means extended to their opinions, and +she did not permit the discussion of religious questions. It was at one +of her own dinners that she started the subscription for a statue of +Voltaire, for whom she entertained the warmest friendship. One may note +here, as elsewhere, a fine mental poise, a justness of spirit, and a +discrimination that was superior to natural prejudices. Sometimes her +frank simplicity was misunderstood. "There is a Mme. Necker here, a +pretty woman and a bel esprit, who is infatuated with me; she persecutes +me to have me at her house," wrote Diderot to Mlle. Volland, with +an evident incapacity to comprehend the innocent appreciation of a +pure-hearted woman. When he knew her better, he expressed his regret +that he had not known her sooner. "You would certainly have inspired me +with a taste for purity and for delicacy," he says, "which would have +passed from my soul into my works." He refers to her again as "a +woman who possesses all that the purity of an angelic soul adds to an +exquisite taste." + +Among the many distinguished foreigners who found their way into this +pleasant circle was her early lover, Gibbon. The old days were far away +when she presided over the literary coterie at Lausanne, speculated upon +the mystery of love, talked of the possibility of tender and platonic +friendships between men and women, after the fashion of the precieuses, +and wept bitter tears over the faithlessness of the embryo historian. +The memory of her grief had long been lost in the fullness of subsequent +happiness, and one readily pardons her natural complacency in the +brilliancy of a position which took little added luster from the fame of +the man who had wooed and so easily forgotten her. + +This period of Mme. Necker's career shows her character on a very +engaging side. Loving her husband with a devotion that verged upon +idolatry, she was rich in the friendship of men like Thomas, Buffon, +Grimm, Diderot, and Voltaire, whose respectful tone was the highest +tribute to her dignity and her delicacy. But the true nature of a woman +is best seen in her relations with her own sex. There are a thousand +fine reserves in her relations with men that, in a measure, veil her +personality. They doubtless call out the most brilliant qualities of +her intellect, and reveal her character, in some points, on its best and +most lovable side; but the rare shades of generous and unselfish feeling +are more clearly seen in the intimate friendships, free from petty +vanities and jealous rivalries, rich in cordial appreciation and +disinterested affection, which we often find among women of the finest +type. It is impossible that one so serious and so earnest as Mme. Necker +should have cherished such passionate friendships for her own sex, +if she had been as cold or as calculating as she has been sometimes +represented. Her intimacy with Mme. de Marchais, of which we have so +many pleasant details, furnishes a case in point. + +This graceful and vivacious woman, who talked so eloquently upon +philosophical, political, and economic questions, was the center of a +circle noted for its liberal tendencies. A friend of Mme. de Pompadour, +at whose suppers she often sang; gifted, witty, and, in spite of a +certain seriousness, retaining always the taste, the elegance, the +charming manners which were her native heritage, she attracted to her +salon not only a distinguished literary company, but many men and women +from the great world of which she only touched the borders. Mme. Necker +had sought the aid and advice of Mme. de Marchais in the formation of +her own salon, and had taken for her one of those ardent attachments so +characteristic of earnest and susceptible natures. She confided to her +all the secrets of her heart; she felt a double pleasure when her joys +and her little troubles were shared with this sympathetic companion. "I +had for her a passionate affection," she says. "When I first saw her my +whole soul was captivated. I thought her one of those enchanting fairies +who combine all the gifts of nature and of magic. I loved her; or, +rather, I idolized her." So pure, so confiding, so far above reproach +herself, she refuses to see the faults of one she loves so tenderly. Her +letters glow with exalted sentiment. "Adieu, my charming, my beautiful, +my sweet friend," she writes. "I embrace you. I press you to my bosom; +or, rather, to my soul, for it seems to me that no interval can separate +yours from mine." + +But the character of Mme. de Marchais was evidently not equal to her +fascination. Her vanity was wounded by the success of her friend. She +took offense at a trifling incident that touched her self-love. "The +great ladies have disgusted me with friendship," she wrote, in reply to +Mme. Necker's efforts to repair the breach. They returned to each other +the letters so full of vows of eternal fidelity, and were friends no +more. Apparently without any fault of her own, Mme. Necker was left with +an illusion the less, and the world has another example to cite of the +frail texture of feminine friendships. + +She was not always, however, so unfortunate in her choice. She found a +more amiable and constant object for her affections in Mme. d'Houdetot, +a charming woman who, in spite of her errors, held a very warm place +in the hearts of her cotemporaries. We have met her before in the +philosophical circles of La Chevrette, and in the beautiful promenades +of the valley of Montmorency, where Rousseau offered her the incense +of a passionate and poetic love. She was facile and witty, graceful and +gay, said wise and thoughtful things, wrote pleasant verses which were +the exhalations of her own heart, and was the center of a limited though +distinguished circle; but her chief attraction was the magic of a sunny +temper and a loving spirit. "He only is unhappy who can neither love, +nor work, nor die," she writes. Though more or less linked with the +literary coteries of her time, Mme. d'Houdetot seems to have been +singularly free from the small vanities and vulgar ambitions so often +met there. She loved simple pleasures and the peaceful scenes of the +country. "What more have we to desire when we can enjoy the pleasures +of friendship and of nature?" she writes. "We may then pass lightly over +the small troubles of life." She counsels repose to her more restless +friend, and her warm expressions of affection have always the ring of +sincerity, which contrasts agreeably with the artificial tone of the +time. Mme. d'Houdetot lived to a great age, preserving always her +youthfulness of spirit and sweet serenity of temper, in spite of sharp +domestic sorrows. She took refuge from these in the life-long friendship +of Saint-Lambert, for whom Mme. Necker has usually a gracious message. +It is a curious commentary upon the manners of the age that one so rigid +and severe should have chosen for her intimate companionship two women +whose lives were so far removed from her own ideal of reserved decorum. +But she thought it best to ignore errors which her world did not regard +as grave, if she was conscious of them at all. + +One finds greater pleasure in recalling her ardent and romantic +attachment to the granddaughter of the Marechale de Luxembourg, the +lovely Amelie de Boufflers, Duchesse de Lauzun, whose pen-portrait she +sketched so gracefully and so tenderly; whose gentle sweetness and shy +delicacy, in the rather oppressive glare of her surroundings, suggest +a modest wild flower astray among the pretentious beauties of the +hothouse, and whose untimely death on the scaffold has left her fragrant +memory entwined with a garland of cypress. But we cannot dwell upon the +intimate phases of this friendship, whose fine quality is shown in the +few scattered leaves of a correspondence overflowing with the wealth of +two rare though unequally gifted natures. + +At a later period her husband's position in the ministry, and the +pronounced opinions of her brilliant daughter, gave to the salon of +Mme. Necker a marked political and semi-revolutionary coloring. Her +inclinations always led her to literary diversions, rather than to the +discussion of economic questions, but as Mme. de Stael gradually took +the scepter that was falling from her hand, she found it difficult to +guide the conversation into its old channels. Her pale, thoughtful face, +her gentle manner, her soft and penetrating voice, all indicated an +exquisitely feminine quality quite in unison with the spirit of urbanity +and politeness that was even then going out of fashion. Her quiet and +earnest though interesting conversation was somewhat overshadowed by the +impetuous eloquence of Mme. de Stael, who gave the tone to every circle +into which she came. "I am more and more convinced that I am not made +for the great world," she said to the Duchesse de Lauzun, with an accent +of regret. "It is Germaine who should shine there and who should love +it, for she possesses all the qualities which put her in a position to +be at once feared and sought." + +If she was allied to the past, however, by her tastes and her +sympathies, she belonged to the future by her convictions, and her +many-sided intellect touched upon every question of the day. Profoundly +religious herself, she was broadly tolerant; always delicate in health, +she found time amid her numerous social duties to aid the poor and +suffering, and to establish the hospital that still bears her name. Her +letters and literary records reveal a woman of liberal thought and fine +insight, as well as scholarly tastes. If she lacked a little in the +facile graces of the French women, she had to an eminent degree the +qualities of character that were far rarer in her age and sphere. Though +she was cold and reserved in manner, beneath the light snow which she +brought from her native hills beat a heart of warm and tender, even +passionate, impulses. Devoted wife, loyal friend, careful mother, +large-minded and large-souled woman, she stands conspicuous, in a period +of lax domestic relations, for the virtues that grace the fireside as +well as for the talents that shine in the salon. + +But she was not exempt from the sorrows of a nature that exacts from +life more than life can give, and finds its illusions vanish before +the cold touch of experience. She had her hours of darkness and of +suffering. Even the love that was the source of her keenest happiness +was also the source of her sharpest griefs. In the days of her husband's +power she missed the exclusive attention she craved. There were moments +when she doubted the depth of his affection, and felt anew that her +"eyes were wedded to eternal tears." She could not see without pain his +extreme devotion to her daughter, whose rich nature, so spontaneous, +so original, so foreign to her own, gave rise to many anxieties and +occasional antagonisms. This touches the weak point in her character. +She was not wholly free from a certain egotism and intellectual vanity, +without the imagination to comprehend fully an individuality quite +remote from all her preconceived ideas. She was slow to accept the fact +that her system of education was at fault, and her failure to mold +her daughter after her own models was long a source of grief and +disappointment. She was ambitious too, and had not won her position +without many secret wounds. When misfortunes came, the blows that fell +upon her husband struck with double force into her own heart. She was +destined to share with him the chill of censure and neglect, the bitter +sting of ingratitude, the lonely isolation of one fallen from a high +place, whose friendship and whose favors count no more. + +In the solitude of Coppet, where she died at fifty-seven, during the +last and darkest days of the Revolution, perhaps she realized in the +tireless devotion of her husband and the loving care of Mme. de Stael +the repose of heart which the brilliant world of Paris never gave her. + +With all her gifts, which have left many records that may be read, +and in spite of a few shadows that fall more or less upon all earthly +relations, not the least of her legacies to posterity was the beautiful +example, rarer then than now, of that true and sympathetic family life +in which lies the complete harmony of existence, a safeguard against +the storms of passion, a perennial fount of love that keeps the spirit +young, the tranquility out of which spring the purest flowers of human +happiness and human endeavor. + +There were many salons of lesser note which have left agreeable +memories. It would be pleasant to recall other clever and beautiful +women whose names one meets so often in the chronicles of the time, and +whose faces, conspicuous for their clear, strong outlines, still look +out upon us from the galleries that perpetuate its life; but the list is +too long and would lead us too far. From the moving procession of social +leaders who made the age preceding the Revolution so brilliant I have +chosen only the few who were most widely known, and who best represent +its dominant types and its special phases. + +The most remarkable period of the literary salons was really closed with +the death of Mme. du Deffand, in 1780. Mme. Geoffrin had already been +dead three years, and Mlle. de Lespinasse, four. Some of the most noted +of the philosophers and men of letters were also gone, others were +past the age of forming fresh ties, the young men belonged to another +generation, and no new drawing rooms exactly replaced the old ones. Mme. +Necker still received the world that was wont to assemble in the great +salons, Mme. de Condorcet presided over a rival coterie, and there were +numerous small and intimate circles; but the element of politics was +beginning to intrude, and with it a degree of heat which disturbed the +usual harmony. The reign of esprit, the perpetual play of wit had begun +to pall upon the tastes of people who found themselves face to face +with problems so grave and issues so vital. There was a slight reaction +towards nature and simplicity. "They may be growing wiser," said +Walpole, "but the intermediate change is dullness." For nearly half a +century learned men and clever women had been amusing themselves +with utopian theories, a few through conviction, the majority through +fashion, or egotism, or the vanity of saying new things, just as the +world is doing today. The doctrines put forth by Montesquieu, vivified +by Voltaire, and carried to the popular heart by Rousseau had been +freely discussed in the salons, not only by philosophers and statesmen, +but by men of the world, poets, artists, and pretty women. The sparks +of thought with which they played so lightly filtered slowly through the +social strata. The talk of the drawing room at last reached the street. +But the torch of truth which, held aloft, serves as a beacon star to +guide the world towards some longed for ideal becomes often a deadly +explosive when it falls among the poisonous vapors of inflammable +human passions. Liberty, equality, fraternity assumed a new and fatal +significance in the minds of the hungry and restless masses who, +embittered by centuries of wrong, were ready to carry these phrases to +their immediate and living conclusions. They had found their watchwords +and their hour. The train was already laid beneath this complex social +structure, and the tragedy that followed carried to a common ruin court +and salon, philosophers and beaux esprits, innocent women and dreaming +men. + +That the salons were unconscious instruments in hastening the +catastrophe, which was sooner or later inevitable, is undoubtedly true. +Their influence in the dissemination of thought was immense. The part +they played was, to a limited extent, precisely that of the modern +press, with an added personal element. They moved in the drift of their +time, directed its intelligence, and reflected its average morality. As +centers of serious conversation they were distinctly stimulating. It is +quite possible that they stimulated the intellect to the exclusion of +the more solid qualities of character, and that they were the source +of a vast amount of affectation. It was the fashion to have esprit, +and those who were deficient in an article so essential to success were +naturally disposed to borrow it, or to put on the semblance of it. But +no phase of life is without its reverse side, and the present generation +cannot claim freedom from pretension of the same sort. It is not +unlikely that in expanding the intelligence they established new +standards of distinction, which in a measure weakened the old ones. But +if they precipitated the downfall of the court they began by rivaling, +it was in the logical course of events, which few were wise enough to +foresee, much less to determine. + +It is worthy of remark that this reign of women, in which the manners +and forms of modern society found their initiative and their models, was +not a reign of youth, or beauty, though these qualities are never likely +to lose their own peculiar fascination. It was, before all things, a +reign of intelligence, and ascendency of women who had put on the hues +of age without laying aside the permanent charm of a fully developed +personality. It was intelligence blended with practical knowledge of +the world and with the graceful amenities that heightened while half +disguising its power. The women of the present have different aims. They +are no longer content with the role of inspirer. Their methods are more +direct. They depend less upon finesse, more upon inherent right and +strength. But it is to the women who shone so conspicuously in France +for more than two hundred years that we may trace the broadened +intellectual life, the unfettered activities, the wide and beneficent +influence of the women of today. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. SALONS OF THE REVOLUTION--MADAME ROLAND + +_Change in the Character of the Salons--Mme. de Condorcet--Mme. Roland's +Story of Her Own Life--A Marriage of Reason--Enthusiasm for the +Revolution--Her Modest Salon--Her Tragical Fate_ + +The salons of the Revolution were no longer simply the fountains of +literary and artistic criticism, the centers of wit, intelligence, +knowledge, philosophy, and good manners, but the rallying points of +parties. They took the tone of the time and assumed the character of +political clubs. The salon of 1790 was not the salon of 1770. A new +generation had arisen, with new ideals and a new spirit that made for +itself other forms or greatly modified the old ones. It was not led by +philosophers and beaux esprits who evolved theories and turned them over +as an intellectual diversion, but by men of action, ready to test +these theories and force them to their logical conclusions. Mirabeau, +Vergniaud, and Robespierre had succeeded Voltaire, Diderot, and +d'Alembert. Impelled towards one end, by vanity, ambition, love of +glory, or genuine conviction, these men and their colleagues turned +the salon, which had so long been the school of public opinion, into an +engine of revolution. The exquisite flower of the eighteenth century had +blossomed, matured, and fallen. Perhaps it was followed by a plant of +sturdier growth, but the rare quality of its beauty was not repeated. +The time was past when the gentle touch of women could temper the +violence of clashing opinions, or subject the discussion of vital +questions to the inflexible laws of taste. No tactful hostess could hold +in leading strings these fiery spirits. The voices that had charmed the +old generation were silent. Of the women who had made the social life of +the century so powerful and so famous, many were quietly asleep before +the storm broke; many were languishing in prison cells, with no outlook +but the scaffold; some were pining in the loneliness of exile; and a few +were buried in a seclusion which was their only safeguard. + +But nature has always in reserve fresh types that come to the surface in +a great crisis. The women who made themselves felt and heard above the +din of revolution, though by no means deficient in the graces, were +mainly distinguished for quite other qualities than those which shine in +a drawing room or lead a coterie. They were either women of rare genius +and the courage of their convictions, or women trained in the stern +school of a bitter experience, who found their true milieu in the midst +of stirring events. The names of Mme. de Stael, Mme. Roland, and Mme. +de Condorcet readily suggest themselves as the most conspicuous +representatives of this stormy period. With different gifts and in +different measure, each played a prominent role in the brief drama to +which they lent the inspiration of their genius and their sympathy, +until they were forced to turn back with horror from that carnival of +savage passions which they had unconsciously helped to let loose upon +the world. + +The salon of the young, beautiful, and gifted Mme. de Condorcet had its +roots in the old order of things. During the ministry of Necker it was +in come degree a rival of the Salon Helvetique, and included many of the +same guests; later it became a rendezvous for the revolutionary party. +The Marquis de Condorcet was not only philosopher, savant, litterateur, +a member of two academies, and among the profoundest thinkers of his +time, but a man of the world, who inherited the tastes and habits of the +old noblesse. His wife, whom he had married late in life, was Sophie de +Grouchy, sister of the Marechal, and was noted for remarkable talents, +as well as for surpassing beauty. Belonging by birth and associations to +the aristocracy, and by her pronounced opinions to the radical side of +the philosophic party, her salon was a center in which two worlds met. +In its palmy days people were only speculating upon the borders of an +abyss which had not yet opened visibly before them. The revolutionary +spirit ran high, but had not passed the limits of reason and humanity. +Mme. de Condorcet, who was deeply tinged with the new doctrines, +presided with charming grace, and her youthful beauty lent an added +fascination to the brilliancy of her intellect and the rather grave +eloquence of her conversation. In her drawing room were gathered men +of letters and women of talent, nobles and scientists, philosophers and +Beaux Esprits. Turgot and Malesherbes represented its political side; +Marmontel, the Abbe Morellet, and Suard lent it some of the wit and +vivacity that shone in the old salons. Literature, science, and the +arts were discussed here, and there was more or less reading, music, or +recitation. But the tendency was towards serious conversation, and the +tone was often controversial. + +The character of Condorcet was a sincere and elevated one. "He loved +much and he loved many people," said Mlle. de Lespinasse. He aimed at +enlightening and regenerating the world, not at overturning it; but, +like many others, strong souls and true, he was led from practical +truth in the pursuit of an ideal one. His wife, who shared his political +opinions, united with them a fiery and independent spirit that was not +content with theories. Her philosophic tastes led her to translate Adam +Smith, and to write a fine analysis of the "Moral Sentiments." But the +sympathy of which she spoke so beautifully, and which gave so living +a force to the philosophy it illuminated, if not directed by broad +intelligence and impartial judgment, is often like the ignis fatuus that +plays over the poisonous marsh and lures the unwary to destruction. For +a brief day the magical influence of Mme. de Condorcet was felt more or +less by all who came within her circle. She inspired the equable temper +of her husband with her own enthusiasm, and urged him on to extreme +measures from which his gentler soul would have recoiled. When at last +he turned from those scenes of horror, choosing to be victim rather than +oppressor, it was too late. Perhaps she recalled the days of her power +with a pang of regret when her friends had fallen one by one at the +scaffold, and her husband, hunted and deserted by those he tried to +serve, had died by his own hand, in a lonely cell, to escape a sadder +fate; while she was left, after her timely release from prison, to +struggle alone in poverty and obscurity, for some years painting +water-color portraits for bread. She was not yet thirty when the +Revolution ended, and lived far into the present century; but though the +illusions of her youth had been rudely shattered, she remained always +devoted to her liberal principles and a broad humanity. + +The woman, however, who most fitly represents the spirit of the +Revolution, who was at once its inspiration, its heroine, and its +victim, is Mme. Roland. It is not as the leader of a salon that she +takes her place in the history of her time, but as one of the foremost +and ablest leaders of a powerful political party. Born in the ranks +of the bourgeoisie, she had neither the prestige of a name nor the +distinction of an aristocratic lineage. Reared in seclusion, she was +familiar with the great world by report only. Though brilliant, even +eloquent in conversation when her interest was roused, her early +training had added to her natural distaste for the spirit, as well +as the accessories, of a social life that was inevitably more or less +artificial. She would have felt cramped and caged in the conventional +atmosphere of a drawing room in which the gravest problems were apt to +be forgotten in the flash of an epigram or the turn of a bon mot. The +strong and heroic outlines of her character were more clearly defined on +the theater of the world. But at a time when the empire of the salon was +waning, when vital interests and burning convictions had for the moment +thrown into the shade all minor questions of form and convenance, she +took up the scepter in a simpler fashion, and, disdaining the arts of +a society of which she saw only the fatal and hopeless corruption, held +her sway over the daring and ardent men who gathered about her by the +unassisted force of her clear and vigorous intellect. + +It would be interesting to trace the career of the thoughtful and +precocious child known as Manon or Marie Phlipon, who sat in her +father's studio with the burin of an engraver in one hand and a book in +the other, eagerly absorbing the revolutionary theories which were to +prove so fatal to her, but it is not the purpose here to dwell upon +the details of her life. In the solitude of a prison cell and under the +shadow of the scaffold she told her own story. She has introduced us +to the simple scenes of her childhood, the modest home on the Quai de +l'Horloge, the wise and tender mother, the weak and unstable father. We +are made familiar with the tiny recess in which she studies, reads, and +makes extracts from the books which are such strange companions for her +years. We seem to see the grave little face as it lights with emotion +over the inspiring pages of Fenelon or the chivalrous heroes of Tasso, +and sympathize with the fascination that leads the child of nine years +to carry her Plutarch to mass instead of her prayer book. She portrays +for us her convent life with its dreams, its exaltations, its romantic +friendships, and its ardent enthusiasms. We have vivid pictures of the +calm and sympathetic Sophie Cannet, to whom she unburdens all her hopes +and aspirations and sorrows; of the lively sister Henriette, who years +afterward, in the generous hope of saving her early friend, proposed to +exchange clothes and take her place in the cells of Sainte-Pelagie. In +the long and commonplace procession of suitors that files before us, +one only touches her heart. La Blancherie has a literary and philosophic +turn, and the young girl's imagination drapes him in its own glowing +colors. The opposition of her father separates them, but absence only +lends fuel to this virgin flame. One day she learns that his views are +mercenary, that he is neither true nor disinterested, and the charm is +broken. She met him afterward in the Luxembourg gardens with a feather +in his hat, and the last illusion vanished. + +There is an idyllic charm in these pictures so simply and gracefully +sketched. She sees with the vision of one lying down to sleep after +a life of pain, and dreaming of the green fields, the blue skies, +the running brooks, the trees, the flowers, that make so beautiful a +background for youthful loves and hopes. Perhaps we could wish sometimes +that she were a little less frank. We miss a touch of delicacy in +this nature that was so strong and self-poised. We are sorry that she +dismissed La Blancherie quite so theatrically. There is a trace too much +of consciousness in her fine self-analysis, perhaps a little vanity, and +we half suspect that her unchildlike penetration and precocity of +motive was sometimes the reflection of an afterthought. But it is to +be remembered that, even in childhood, she had lived in such close +companionship with the heroes and moralists of the past that their +sentiments had become her own. She doubtless posed a little to +herself, as well as to the world, but her frankness was a part of that +uncompromising truthfulness which scorned disguises of any sort, and led +her to paint faults and virtues alike. + +Family sorrows--the death of the mother whom she adored, and the +unworthiness of her father--combined to change the current of her free +and happy life, and to deepen a natural vein of melancholy. In her +loneliness of soul the convent seemed to offer itself as the sole haven +of peace and rest. The child, who loved Fenelon, and dreamed over the +lives of the saints, had in her much of the stuff out of which mystics +and fanatics are made. Her ardent soul was raised to ecstasy by the +stately ceremonial of the Church; her imagination was captivated by its +majestic music, its mystery, its solemnity, and she was wont to spend +hours in rapt meditation. But her strong fund of good sense, her firm +reason fortified by wide and solid reading, together with her habits of +close observation and analysis, saved her from falling a victim to +her own emotional needs, or to chimeras of any sort. She had drawn her +mental nourishment too long from Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, the +English philosophers, and classic historians, to become permanently a +prey to exaggerated sensibilities, though it was the same temperament +fired by a sense of human inequality and wrong, that swept her at last +along the road that led to the scaffold. At twenty-six the vocation +of the religieuse had lost its fascination; the pious fervor of her +childhood had vanished before the skepticism of her intellect, its +ardent friendships had grown dim, its fleeting loves had proved +illusive, and her romantic dreams ended in a cold marriage of reason. + +It may be noted here that though Mme. Roland had lost her belief in +ecclesiastical systems, and, as she said, continued to go to mass only +for the "edification of her neighbors and the good order of society," +there was always in her nature a strong undercurrent of religious +feeling. Her faith had not survived the full illumination of her reason, +but her trust in immortality never seriously wavered. The Invocation +that was among her last written words is the prayer of a soul that is +conscious of its divine origin and destiny. She retained, too, the firm +moral basis that was laid in her early teachings, and which saved her +from the worst errors of her time. She might be shaken by the storms of +passion, but one feels that she could never be swept from her moorings. + +Tall and finely developed, with dark brown hair; a large mouth whose +beauty lay in a smile of singular sweetness; dark, serious eyes with +a changeful expression which no artist could catch; a fresh complexion +that responded to every emotion of a passionate soul; a deep, +well-modulated voice; manners gentle, modest, reserved, sometimes +timid with the consciousness that she was not readily taken at her true +value--such was the PERSONNELLE of the woman who calmly weighed the +possibilities of a life which had no longer a pleasant outlook in any +direction, and, after much hesitation, became the wife of a grave, +studious, austere man of good family and moderate fortune, but many +years her senior. + +It was this marriage, into which she entered with all seriousness, and a +devotion that was none the less sincere because it was of the intellect +rather than the heart, that gave the final tinge to a character that was +already laid on solid foundations. Strong, clear-sighted, earnest, and +gifted, her later experience had accented a slightly ascetic quality +which had been deepened also by her study of antique models. Her tastes +were grave and severe. But they had a lighter side. As a child she had +excelled in music, dancing, drawing, and other feminine accomplishments, +though one feels always that her distinctive talent does not lie in +these things. She is more at home with her thoughts. There was a touch +of poetry, too, in her nature, that under different circumstances might +have lent it a softer and more graceful coloring. She had a natural love +for the woods and the flowers. The single relief to her somber life at +La Platiere, after her marriage, was in the long and lonely rambles in +the country, whose endless variations of hill and vale and sky and color +she has so tenderly and so vividly noted. In her last days a piano and +a few flowers lighted the darkness of her prison walls, and out of +these her imagination reared a world of its own, peopled with dreams and +fancies that contrasted strangely with the gloom of her surroundings. +This poetic vein was closely allied to the keen sensibility that +tempered the seriousness of her character. With the mental equipment of +a man, she combined the rich sympathy of a woman. Her devotion to her +mother was passionate in its intensity; her letters to Sophie throb with +warmth and sentiment. She is tender and loving, as well as philosophic +and thoughtful. Her emotional ardor was doubtless partly the glow of +youth and not altogether in the texture of a mind so eminently rational; +but there were rich possibilities behind it. A shade of difference in +the mental and moral atmosphere, a trace more or less of sunshine and +happiness are important factors in the peculiar combination of qualities +that make up a human being. The marriage of Mme. Roland led her into a +world that had little color save what she brought into it. Her husband +did not smile upon her friends. Sympathy other than that of the +intellect she does not seem to have had. But her story is best told in +her own words, written in the last days of her life. + +"In considering only the happiness of my partner, I soon perceived that +something was wanting to my own. I had never, for a single instant, +ceased to see in my husband one of the most estimable of men, to whom I +felt it an honor to belong; but I have often realized that there was +a lack of equality between us, that the ascendency of an overbearing +character, added to that of twenty years more of age, gave him too much +superiority. If we lived in solitude, I had many painful hours to pass; +if we went into the world, I was loved by men of whom I saw that some +might touch me too deeply. I plunged into work with my husband, another +excess which had its inconvenience; I gave him the habit of not knowing +how to do without me for anything in the world, nor at any moment. + +"I honor, I cherish my husband, as a sensible daughter adores a virtuous +father to whom she would sacrifice even her lover; but I have found the +man who might have been that lover, and remaining faithful to my duties, +my frankness has not known how to conceal the feelings which I subjected +to them. My husband, excessively sensitive both in his affections and +his self-love, could not support the idea of the least change in +his influence; his imagination darkened, his jealousy irritated me; +happiness fled; he adored me, I sacrificed myself for him, and we were +miserable. + +"If I were free, I would follow him everywhere to soften his griefs and +console his old age; a soul like mine leaves no sacrifices imperfect. +But Roland was embittered by the thought of sacrifice, and the knowledge +once acquired that I mad made one ruined his happiness; he suffered in +accepting it, and could not do without it." + +The sequel to this tale is told in allusions and half revelations, +in her letters to Buzot, which glow with suppressed feeling; in her +touching farewell to one whom she dared not to name, but whom she hoped +to meet where it would not be a crime to love; in those final words of +her "Last Thoughts"--"Adieu.... No, it is from thee alone that I do not +separate; to leave the earth is to approach each other." + +Beneath this semi-transparent veil the heart-drama of her life is +hidden. + +For the sake of those who would be pained by this story, as well as +for her own, we would rather it had never been told. We should like to +believe that the woman who worked so nobly with and for the man who +died by his own hand five days after her death, because he could stay no +longer in a world where such crimes were possible, had lived in the +full perfection of domestic sympathy. But, if she carried with her an +incurable wound, one cannot help regretting that her Spartan courage +had not led her to wear the mantle of silence to the end. Posterity +is curious rather than sympathetic, and the world is neither wiser nor +better for these needless soul-revelations. There is always a certain +malady of egotism behind them. But it is often easier to scale the +heights of human heroism than to still the cry of a bruised spirit. Mme. +Roland had moments of falling short of her own ideals, and this was one +of them. Pure, loyal, self-sustained as she was, her strong sense +of verity did not permit the veil which would have best served the +interests of the larger truth. It is fair to say that she thought the +malicious gossip of her enemies rendered this statement necessary to +the protection of her fame. Perhaps, after all, she shows here her most +human and lovable if not her strongest side. We should like Minerva +better if she were not so faultlessly wise. + +The outbreak of the Revolution found Mme. Roland at La Platiere, where +she shared her husband's philosophic and economic studies, brought +peace into a discordant family, attended to her household duties and the +training of her child, devoted many hours to generous care for the sick +and poor, and reserved a little leisure for poetry and the solitary +rambles she loved so well. The first martial note struck a responsive +chord in her heart. Her opportunity had come. Embittered by class +distinctions over which she had long brooded, saturated with the +sentiments of Rousseau, and full of untried theories constructed in +the closet, with small knowledge of the wide and complex interests with +which it was necessary to deal, she centered all the hitherto latent +energies of her forceful nature upon the quixotic effort to redress +human wrongs. Her birth, her intellect, her character, her temperament, +her education, her associations--all led her towards the role she played +so heroically. She had a keen appreciation for genuine values, but +none whatever for factitious ones. Her inborn hatred of artificial +distinctions had grown with her years and colored all her estimates +of men and things. When she came to Paris, she noted with a sort of +indignation the superior poise and courtesy of the men in the assembly +who had been reared in the habit of power. It added fuel to her enmity +towards institutions in which reason, knowledge, and integrity paid +homage to fine language and distinguished manners. She found even +Vergniaud too refined and fastidious in his dress for a successful +republican leader. Her old contempt for a "philosopher with a feather" +had in no wise abated. With such principles ingrained and fostered, it +is not difficult to forecast the part Mme. Roland was destined to play +in the coming conflict of classes. Whatever we may think of the wisdom +of her attitude towards the Revolution, she represented at least its +most sincere side. As she stood white-robed and courageous at the foot +of the scaffold, facing the savage populace she had laid down her life +to befriend, perhaps her perspectives were truer. Experience had given +her an insight into the characters of men which is not to be gained in +the library, nor in the worship of dead heroes. If it had not shaken her +faith in human perfectibility, it had taught her at least the value of +tradition in chaining brutal human passions. + +The tragical fate of Mme. Roland has thrown a strong light upon the +modest little salon in which the unfortunate Girondists met four times a +week to discuss the grave problems that confronted them. A salon in the +old sense it certainly was not. It had little in common with the famous +centers of conversation and esprit. It was simply the rallying point of +a party. The only woman present was Mme. Roland herself, but at first +she assumed no active leadership. She sat at a little table outside +of the circle, working with her needle, or writing letters, alive to +everything that was said, venturing sometimes a word of counsel or +a thoughtful suggestion, and often biting her lips to repress some +criticism that she feared might not be within her province. She had +left her quiet home in the country fired with a single thought--the +regeneration of France. The men who gathered about her were in full +accord with her generous aims. It was not to such enthusiasms that the +old salons lost themselves. They had been often the centers of political +intrigues, as in the days of the Fronde; or of religious partisanship, +as during the troubles of Port Royal; they had ranged themselves for and +against rival candidates for literary or artistic honors; but they had +preserved, on the whole, a certain cosmopolitan character. All shades of +opinion were represented, and social brilliancy was the end sought, not +the triumph of special ideas. It is indeed true that earnest +convictions were, to some extent, stifled in the salons, where charm +and intelligence counted for so much, and the sterling qualities of +character for so little. But the etiquette, the urbanity, the measure, +which assured the outward harmony of a society that courted distinction +of every kind, were quite foreign to the iconoclasts who were bent +upon leveling all distinctions. The Revolution which attacked the whole +superstructure of society, was antagonistic to its minor forms as well, +and it was the revolutionary party alone which was represented in the +salon of Mme. Roland. Brissot, Vergniaud, Petion, Guadet, and Buzot were +leaders there--men sincere and ardent, though misguided, and unable to +cope with the storm they had raised, to be themselves swept away by +its pitiless rage. Robespierre, scheming and ambitious, came there, +listened, said little, appropriated for his own ends, and bided his +time. Mme. Roland had small taste for the light play of intellect and +wit that has no outcome beyond the meteoric display of the moment, and +she was impatient with the talk in which an evening was often passed +among these men without any definite results. As she measured their +strength, she became more outspoken. She communicated to them a spark +of her own energy. The most daring moves were made at her bidding. She +urged on her timid and conservative husband, she drew up his memorials, +she wrote his letters, she was at once his stimulus, and his helper. +Weak and vacillating men yielded to her rapid insight, her vigor, her +earnestness, and her persuasive eloquence. This was probably the period +of her greatest influence. Many of the swift changes of those first +months may be traced to her salon. The moves which were made in the +Assembly were concocted there, the orators who triumphed found their +inspiration there. Still, in spite of her energy, her strength, and +her courage, she prides herself upon maintaining always the reserve and +decorum of her sex. + +If she assumed the favorite role of the French woman for a short time +while her husband was in the ministry, it was in a sternly republican +fashion. She gave dinners twice a week to her husband's political +friends. The fifteen or twenty men who met around her table at five +o'clock were linked by political interests only. The service was simple, +with no other luxury than a few flowers. There were no women to temper +the discussions or to lighten their seriousness. After dinner the guests +lingered for an hour or so in the drawing room, but by nine o'clock it +was deserted. She received on Friday, but what a contrast to the Fridays +of Mme. Necker in those same apartments! It was no longer a brilliant +company of wits, savants, and men of letters, enlivened by women of +beauty, esprit, rank, and fashion. There was none of the diversity of +taste and thought which lends such a charm to social life. Mme. Roland +tells us that she never had an extended circle at any time, and that, +while her husband was in power, she made and received no visits, and +invited no women to her house. She saw only her husband's colleagues, +or those who were interested in his tastes and pursuits, which were also +her own. The world of society wearied her. She was absorbed in a single +purpose. If she needed recreation, she sought it in serious studies. + +It is always difficult to judge what a man or a woman might have been +under slightly altered conditions. But for some single circumstance that +converged and focused their talent, many a hero would have died unknown +and unsuspected. The key that unlocks the treasure house of the soul is +not always found, and its wealth is often scattered on unseen shores. +But it is clear that the part of Mme. Roland could never have been a +distinctively social one. She lived at a time when great events brought +out great qualities. Her clear intellect, her positive convictions, +her boundless energy, and her ardent enthusiasm, gave her a powerful +influence in those early days of the Revolution, that looked towards a +world reconstructed but not plunged into the dark depths of chaos, and +it is through this that she has left a name among the noted women of +France. In more peaceful times her peculiar talent would doubtless have +led her towards literature. In her best style she has rare vigor and +simplicity. She has moments of eloquent thought. There are flashes of it +in her early letters to Sophie, which she begs her friend not to burn, +though she does not hope to rival Mme. de Sevigne, whom she takes for +her model. She lacked the grace, the lightness, the wit, the humor of +this model, but she had an earnestness, a serious depth of thought, that +one does not find in Mme. de Sevigne. She had also a vein of sentiment +that was an underlying force in her character, though it was always +subject to her masculine intellect. She confesses that she should like +to be the annalist of her country, and longs for the pen of Tacitus, +for whom she has a veritable passion. When one reads her sharp, incisive +pen-portraits, drawn with such profound insight and masterly skill, one +feels that her true vocation was in the world of letters. At the close +she verges a little upon the theatrical, as sometimes in her young days. +But when she wrote her final records she felt her last hours slipping +away. Life, with its large possibilities undeveloped and its promises +unfulfilled, was behind her. Darkness was all around her, eternal +silence before her. And she had lived but thirty-nine years. + +Mme. Roland does not really belong to the world of the salons, though +she has been included among them by some of her own cotemporaries. She +was of quite another genre. She represents a social reaction in which +old forms are adapted to new ideas and lose their essential quality +by the change. But she foreshadows a type of woman that has had great +influence since the salons have lost their prestige. She relied neither +upon the reflected light of a coterie, the arts of the courtier, nor the +subtle power of personal attraction; but, firm in her convictions, clear +in her purpose, and unselfish in her aims, she laid down her interests, +and, in the end, her life, upon the altar of liberty and humanity. She +could hardly be regarded, however, as herself a type. She was cast in a +rare mold and lived under rare conditions. She was individual, as were +Hypatia, Joan of Arc, and Charlotte Corday--a woman fitted for a special +mission which brought her little but a martyr's crown and a permanent +fame. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. MADAME DE STAEL + +_Supremacy of Her Genius--Her Early Training--Her Sensibility--a Mariage +de Convenance--Her Salon--Anecdote of Benjamin Constant--Her Exile--Life +at Coppet--Secret Marriage--Close of a Stormy Life._ + +The fame of all other French women is more or less overshadowed by that +of one who was not only supreme in her own world, but who stands on +a pinnacle so high that time and distance only serve to throw into +stronger relief the grand outlines of her many-sided genius. Without the +simplicity and naturalness of Mme. de Sevigne, the poise and judgment +of Mme. de Lafayette, or the calm foresight and diplomacy of Mme. de +Maintenon, Mme. de Stael had a brilliancy of imagination, a force of +passion, a grasp of intellect, and a diversity of gifts that belonged +to none of these women. It is not possible within the limits of a brief +chapter to touch even lightly upon the various phases of a character so +complex and talents so versatile. One can only gather a few scattered +traits and indicate a few salient points in a life of which the details +are already familiar. As woman, novelist, philosopher, litterateur, +and conversationist, she has marked, if not equal, claims upon our +attention. To speak of her as simply the leader of a salon is to merge +the greater talent into the less, but her brilliant social qualities +in a measure brought out and illuminated all the others. It was not +the gift of reconciling diverse elements, and of calling out the best +thoughts of those who came within her radius, that distinguished her. +Her personality was too dominant not to disturb sometimes the measure +and harmony which fashion had established. She did not listen well, +but her gift was that of the orator, and, taking whatever subject was +uppermost into her own hands, she talked with an irresistible eloquence +that held her auditors silent and enchained. Living as she did in the +world of wit and talent which had so fascinated her mother, she ruled it +as an autocrat. + +The mental coloring of Mme. de Stael was not taken in the shade, as that +of Mme. Roland had been. She was reared in the atmosphere of the great +world. That which her eager mind gathered in solitude was subject always +to the modification which contact with vigorous living minds is sure to +give. The little Germaine Necker who sat on a low stool at her mother's +side, charming the cleverest men of her time by her precocious wit; who +wrote extracts from the dramas she heard, and opinions upon the authors +she read; who made pen-portraits of her friends, and cut out paper kings +and queens to play in the tragedies she composed; whose heart was always +overflowing with love for those around her, and who had supreme need +for an outlet to her sensibilities, was a fresh type in that age of keen +analysis, cold skepticism, and rigid forms. The serious utterances of +her childhood were always suffused with feeling. She loved that which +made her weep. Her sympathies were full and overflowing, and when her +vigorous and masculine intellect took the ascendency it directed them, +but only partly held them in check. It never dulled nor subdued them. +The source of her power, as also of her weakness, lay perhaps in +her vast capacity for love. It gave color and force to her rich and +versatile character. It animated all she did and gave point to all she +wrote. It found expression in the eloquence of her conversation, in the +exaltation and passionate intensity of her affections, in the fervor of +her patriotism, in the self-forgetful generosity that brought her very +near the verge of the scaffold. Here was the source of that indefinable +quality we call genius--not genius of the sort which Buffon has defined +as patience, but the divine flame that crowns with life the dead +materials which patience has gathered. + +It was impossible that a child so eager, so sympathetic, so full +of intellect and esprit, should not have developed rapidly in the +atmosphere of her mother's salon. Whether it was the best school for a +young girl may be a question, but a character like that of Mme. de Stael +is apt to go its own way in whatever circumstances it finds itself. +She was the despair of Mme. Necker, whose educational theories were +altogether upset by this precocious daughter who refused to be cast in +a mold. But she was habituated to a high altitude of thought. Men like +Marmontel, La Harpe, Grimm, Thomas, and the Abbe Raynal delighted in +calling out her ready wit, her brilliant repartee, and her precocious +ideas. Surrounded thus from childhood with all the appointments as +well as the talent and esprit that made the life of the salons so +fascinating; inheriting the philosophic insight of her father, the +literary gifts of her mother, to which she added a genius all her own; +heir also to the spirit of conversation, the facility, the enthusiasm, +the love of pleasing which are the Gallic birthright, she took her place +in the social world as a queen by virtue of her position, her gifts, and +her heritage. Already, before her marriage, she had changed the tone +of her mother's salon. She brought into it an element of freshness and +originality which the dignified and rather precise character of Mme. +Necker had failed to impart. She gave it also a strong political +coloring. This influence was more marked after she became the wife +of the Swedish ambassador, as she continued for some time to pass her +evenings in her mother's drawing room, where she became more and more +a central figure. Her temperament and her tastes were of the world in +which she lived, but her reason and her expansive sympathies led her to +ally herself with the popular cause; hence she was, to some extent, a +link between two conflicting interests. + +It was in 1786 that Mme. de Stael entered the world as a married woman. +This marriage was arranged for her after the fashion of the time, and +she accepted it as she would have accepted anything tolerable that +pleased her idolized father and revered mother. When only ten years +of age, she observed that they took great pleasure in the society of +Gibbon, and she gravely proposed to marry him, that they might always +have this happiness. The full significance of this singular proposition +is not apparent until one remembers that the learned historian was not +only rather old, but so short and fat as to call out from one of his +friends the remark that when he needed a little exercise he had only to +take a turn of three times around M. Gibbon. The Baron de Stael had an +exalted position, fine manners, a good figure, and a handsome face, but +he lacked the one thing that Mme. de Stael most considered, a commanding +talent. She did not see him through the prism of a strong affection +which transfigures all things, even the most commonplace. What this +must have meant to a woman of her genius and temperament whose ideal of +happiness was a sympathetic marriage, it is not difficult to divine. It +may account, in some degree, for her restlessness, her perpetual need of +movement, of excitement, of society. But, whatever her domestic troubles +may have been, they were of limited duration. She was quietly separated +from her husband in 1798. Four years later she decided to return to +Coppet with him, as he was unhappy and longed to see his children. He +died en route. + +The period of this marriage was one of the most memorable of France, the +period when noble and generous spirits rallied in a spontaneous movement +for national regeneration. Mme. De Stael was in the flush of hope and +enthusiasm, fresh from the study of Rousseau and her own dreams of human +perfectibility; radiant, too, with the reflection of her youthful fame. +Among those who surrounded her were the Montmorencys, Lafayette, and +Count Louis de Narbonne, whose brilliant intellect and charming manners +touched her perhaps too deeply for her peace of mind. There were also +Barnave, Chenier, Talleyrand, Mirabeau, Vergniaud, and many others of +the active leaders of the Revolution. A few woman mingled in her more +intimate circle, which was still of the old society. Of these were the +ill-fated Duchesse de Gramont, Mme. de Lauzun, the Princesse de Poix, +and the witty, lovable Marechale de Beauvau. As a rule, though devoted +to her friends and kind to those who sought her aid, Mme. de Stael did +not like the society of women. Perhaps they did not always respond to +her elevated and swiftly flowing thoughts; or it may be that she +wounded the vanity of those who were cast into the shade by talents +so conspicuous and conversation so eloquent, and who felt the lack of +sympathetic rapport. Society is au fond republican, and is apt to resent +autocracy, even the autocracy of genius, when it takes the form of +monologue. It is contrary to the social spirit. The salon of Mme. de +Stael not only took its tone from herself, but it was a reflection of +herself. She was not beautiful, and she dressed badly; indeed, she seems +to have been singularly free from that personal consciousness which +leads people to give themselves the advantages of an artistic setting, +even if the taste is not inborn. She was too intent upon what +she thought and felt, to give heed to minor details. But in her +conversation, which was a sort of improvisation, her eloquent face +was aglow, her dark eyes flashed with inspiration, her superb form and +finely poised head seemed to respond to the rhythmic flow of thoughts +that were emphasized by the graceful gestures of an exquisitely molded +hand, in which she usually held a sprig of laurel. "If I were queen," +said Mme. de Tesse, "I would order Mme. de Stael to talk to me always." + +But this center in which the more thoughtful spirits of the old regime +met the brilliant and active leaders of the new was broken up by the +storm which swept away so many of its leaders, and Mme. de Stael, after +lingering in the face of dangers to save her friends, barely escaped +with her life on the eve of the September massacres of 1792. "She is an +excellent woman," said one of her contemporaries, "who drowns all her +friends in order to have the pleasure of angling for them." + +Mme. de Stael resumed her place and organized her salon anew in 1795. +But it was her fate to live always in an atmosphere surcharged with +storms. She was too republican for the aristocrats, and too aristocratic +for the republicans. Distrusted by both parties and feared by the +Directoire, she found it advisable after a few months to retire to +Coppet. Less than two years later she was again in Paris. Her friends +were then in power, notably Talleyrand. "If I remain here another year +I shall die," he had written her from America, and she had generously +secured the repeal of the decree that exiled him, a kindness which +he promptly forgot. Though her enthusiasm for the republic was much +moderated, and though she had been so far dazzled by the genius of +Napoleon as to hail him as a restorer of order, her illusions regarding +him were very short-lived. She had no sympathy with his aims at personal +power. Her drawing room soon became the rallying point for his enemies +and the center of a powerful opposition. But she had a natural love for +all forms of intellectual distinction, and her genius and fame still +attracted a circle more or less cosmopolitan. Ministers of state and +editors of leading journals were among her guests. Joseph and Lucien +Bonaparte were her devoted friends. The small remnant of the noblesse +that had any inclination to return to a world which had lost its +charm for them found there a trace of the old politeness. Mathieu de +Montmorency, devout and charitable; his brother Adrien, delicate in +spirit and gentle in manners; Narbonne, still devoted and diplomatic, +and the Chevalier de Boufflers, gay, witty, and brilliant, were of those +who brought into it something of the tone of the past regime. There +were also the men of the new generation, men who were saturated with the +principles of the Revolution though regretting its methods. Among these +were Chebnier, Regnault, and Benjamin Constant. + +The influence of Mme. de Stael was at its height during this period. +Her talent, her liberal opinions, and her persuasive eloquence gave +her great power over the constitutional leaders. The measures of the +Government were freely discussed and criticized in her salon, and men +went out with positions well defined and speeches well considered. The +Duchesse d'Abrantes relates an incident which aptly illustrates this +power and its reaction upon herself. Benjamin Constant had prepared a +brilliant address. The evening before it was to be delivered, Mme. de +Stael was surrounded by a large and distinguished company. After tea was +served he said to her: + +"Your salon is filled with people who please you; if I speak tomorrow, +it will be deserted. Think of it." + +"One must follow one's convictions," she replied, after a moment's +hesitation. + +She admitted afterward that she would never have refused his offer not +to compromise her, if she could have foreseen all that would follow. + +The next day she invited her friends to celebrate his triumph. At four +o'clock a note of excuse; in an hour, ten. From this time her fortunes +waned. Many ceased to visit her salon. Even Talleyrand, who owed her so +much, came there no more. + +In later years she confessed that the three men she had most loved were +Narbonne, Talleyrand, and Mathieu de Montmorency. Her friendship for the +first of these reached a passionate exaltation, which had a profound and +not altogether wholesome influence upon her life. How completely she was +disenchanted is shown in a remark she made long afterward of a loyal and +distinguished man: "He has the manners of Narbonne and a heart." It is +a character in a sentence. Mathieu de Montmorency was a man of pure +motives, who proved a refuge of consolation in many storms, but her +regard for him was evidently a gentler flame that never burned to +extinction. Whatever illusions she may have had as to Talleyrand--and +they seem to have been little more than an enthusiastic appreciation of +his talent--were certainly broken by his treacherous desertion in her +hour of need. Not the least among her many sorrows was the bitter taste +of ingratitude. + +But Napoleon, who, like Louis XIV, sought to draw all influences and +merge all power in himself, could not tolerate a woman whom he felt to +be in some sense a rival. He thought he detected her hand in the address +of Benjamin Constant which lost her so many friends. He feared the wit +that flashed in her salon, the satire that wounded the criticism that +measured his motives and his actions. He recognized the power of a +coterie of brilliant intellects led by a genius so inspiring. His +brothers, knowing her vulnerable point and the will with which she had +to deal, gave her a word of caution. But the advice and intercession of +her friends were alike without avail. The blow which she so much feared +fell at last, and she found herself an exile and a wanderer from the +scenes she most loved. + +We have many pleasant glimpses of her life at Coppet, but a shadow +always rests upon it. A few friends still cling to her through the +bitter and relentless persecutions that form one of the most singular +chapters in history, and offer the most remarkable tribute to her genius +and her power. We find here Schlegel, Sismondi, Mathieu de Montmorency, +Prince Augustus, Monti, Mme. Recamier, and many other distinguished +visitors of various nationalities. The most prominent figure perhaps was +Benjamin Constant, brilliant, gifted, eloquent, passionate, vain, and +capricious, the torturing consolation and the stormy problem of her +saddest years. She revived the old literary diversions. At eleven +o'clock, we are told, the guests assembled at breakfast, and the +conversations took a high literary tone. They were resumed at dinner, +and continued often until midnight. Here, as elsewhere, Mme. de Stael +was queen, holding her guests entranced by the magic of her words. "Life +is for me like a ball after the music has ceased," said Sismondi when +her voice was silent. She was a veritable Corinne in her esprit, her +sentiment, her gift of improvisation, and her underlying melancholy. But +in this choice company hers was not the only voice, though it was heard +above all the others. Thought and wit flashed and sparkled. Dramas were +played--the "Zaire" and "Tancred" of Voltaire, and tragedies written by +herself. Mme. Recamier acted the Aricie to Mme. de Stael's Phedre. This +life that seems to us so fascinating, has been described too often +to need repetition. It had its tumultuous elements, its passionate +undercurrents, its romantic episodes. But in spite of its attractions +Mme. de Stael fretted under the peaceful shades of Coppet. Its limited +horizon pressed upon her. The silence of the snowcapped mountains +chilled her. She looked upon their solitary grandeur with "magnificent +horror." The repose of nature was an "infernal peace" which plunged her +into gloomier depths of ennui and despair. To some one who was admiring +the beauties of Lake Leman she replied; "I should like better the +gutters of the Rue du Bac." It was people, always people, who interested +her. "French conversation exists only in Paris," she said, "and +conversation has been from infancy my greatest pleasure." Restlessly +she sought distraction in travel, but wherever she went the iron hand +pressed upon her still. Italy fostered her melancholy. She loved its +ruins, which her imagination draped with the fading colors of the past +and associated with the desolation of a living soul. But its exquisite +variety of landscape and color does not seem to have touched her. "If it +were not for the world's opinion," she said, "I would not open my window +to see the Bay of Naples for the first time, but I would travel five +hundred leagues to talk with a clever man whom I have not met." Germany +gave her infinite food for thought, but her "astonishing volubility," +her "incessant movement," her constant desire to know, to discuss, to +penetrate all things wearied the moderate Germans, as it had already +wearied the serious English. "Tell me, Monsieur Fichte," she said one +day, "could you in a short time, a quarter of an hour for example, give +me a glimpse of your system and explain what you understand by your ME; +I find it very obscure." The philosopher was amazed at what he thought +her impertinence, but made the attempt through an interpreter. At the +end of ten minutes she exclaimed, "That is sufficient, Monsieur Fichte. +That is quite sufficient. I comprehend you perfectly. I have seen +your system in illustration. It is one of the adventures of Baron +Munchhausen." "We are in perpetual mental tension," said the wife of +Schiller. Even Schiller himself grew tired. "It seems as if I were +relieved of a malady," he said, when she left. + +It was this excess of vivacity and her abounding sensibility that +constituted at once her fascination and her misfortune. Her beliefs +were enthusiasms. Her friendships were passions. "No one has carried the +religion of friendship so far as myself," she said. To love, to be +loved was the supreme need of her soul; but her love was a flame that +irradiated her intellect and added brilliancy to the life it consumed. +She paints in "Corinne" the passions, the struggles, the penalties, and +the sorrows of a woman of genius. It is a life she had known, a life +of which she had tasted the sweetest delights and experienced the most +cruel disenchantments. "Corinne" at the Capitol, "Corinne" thinking, +analyzing, loving, suffering, triumphing, wearing a crown of laurel upon +her head and an invisible crown of thorns upon her heart--it is Mme. de +Stael self-revealed by the light of her own imagination. + +It was in a moment of weakness and weariness, when her idols had one +after another been shattered, and all the pleasant vistas of her youth +seemed shut out forever, that she met M. de Rocca, a wounded officer +of good family, but of little more than half her years, whose gentle, +chivalric character commanded her admiration, whose suffering touched +her pity, and whose devotion won her affection. "I will love her so much +that she will end by marrying me," he said, and the result proved his +penetration. This marriage, which was a secret one, has shadowed a +little the brilliancy of her fame, but if it was a weakness to bend from +her high altitude, it was not a sin, though more creditable to her heart +than to her worldly wisdom. At all events it brought into her life a +new element of repose, and gave her a tender consolation in her closing +years. + +When at last the relentless autocrat of France found his rock-bound +limits, and she was free to return to the spot which had been the goal +of all her dreams, it was too late. Her health was broken. It is true +her friends rallied around her, and her salon, opened once more, retook +a little of its ancient glory. Few celebrities who came to Paris failed +to seek the drawing room of Mme. de Stael, which was still illuminated +with the brilliancy of her genius and the splendor of her fame. But her +triumphs were past, and life was receding. Her few remaining days of +weakness and suffering, darkened by vain regrets, were passed more and +more in the warmth and tenderness of her devoted family, in the noble +and elevated thought that rose above the strife of politics into the +serene atmosphere of a Christian faith. At her death bed Chateaubriand +did her tardy justice. "Bon jour, my dear Francis; I suffer, but that +does not prevent me from loving you," she said to one who had been her +critic, but never her friend. Her magnanimity was as unfailing as her +generosity, and it may be truly said that she never cherished a hatred. + +The life of Mme. de Stael was in the world. She embodied the French +spirit; she could not conceive of happiness in a secluded existence; a +theater and an audience were needed to call out her best talents. She +could not even bear her griefs alone. The world was taken into her +confidence. She demanded its sympathy. She chanted exquisite requiems +over her dead hopes and her lost illusions, but she chanted them in +costume, never quite forgetting that her role was a heroic one. She +added, however, to the gifts of an improvisatrice something infinitely +higher and deeper. There was no problem with which she was not ready to +deal. She felt the pulse beats in the great heart of humanity, and her +tongue, her pen, her purse, and her influence were ever at the bidding +of the unfortunate. She traversed all fields of thought, from the +pleasant regions of poetry and romance to the highest altitudes of +philosophy. We may note the drift of her ardent and imaginative nature +in the youthful tales into which she wove her romantic dreams, her +fancied griefs, her inward struggles, and her tears. In the pages +of "Corinne" we read the poetry, the sensibility, the passion, the +melancholy, the thought of a matured woman whose youth of the soul +neither sorrow nor experience could destroy. We may divine the direction +of her sympathies, and the fountain of her inspiration, in her letters +on Rousseau, written at twenty, and foreshadowing her own attitude +towards the theories which appealed so powerfully to the generous +spirits of the century. We may follow the active and scholarly workings +of her versatile intellect in her pregnant thoughts on literature, +on the passions, on the Revolution; or measure the clearness of +her insight, the depth of her penetration, the catholicity of her +sympathies, and the breadth of her intelligence in her profound and +masterly, if not always accurate, studies of Germany. The consideration +of all this pertains to a critical estimate of her character and genius +which cannot be attempted here. + +It has grown to be somewhat the fashion to depreciate the literary work +of Mme. de Stael. Measured by present standards she leaves something +to be desired in logical precision; she had not the exactness of +the critical scholar, nor the simplicity of the careful artist; the +luxuriance of her language often obscures her thought. She is talking +still, and her written words have the rapid, tumultuous flow of +conversation, together with its occasional negligences, its careless +periods, its sudden turns, its encumbered phrases. Misguided she +sometimes was, and carried away by the resistless rush of ideas that, +like the mountain torrent, gathered much debris along their course. But +her rapid judgments, which have the force of inspiration, are in advance +of her time, though in the main correct from her own point of view, +while her flaws in workmanship are more than counterbalanced by that +inward illumination which is Heaven's richest and rarest gift. But who +cares to dwell upon the shadows that scarcely dim the brilliancy of a +genius so rare and so commanding? They are but spots on the sun that are +only discovered by looking through a glass that veils its radiance. +It is just to weigh her by the standards of her own age. Born at its +highest level, she soared far above her generation. She carried within +herself the vision of a statesman, the penetration of a critic, the +insight of a philosopher, the soul of a poet, and the heart of a woman. +If she was not without faults, she had rare virtues. No woman has ever +exercised a wider or more varied influence. With one or two exceptions, +none stands on so high a pinnacle. George Sand was a more finished +artist; George Eliot was a greater novelist, a more accurate scholar, +and a more logical thinker; but in versatility, in intellectual +spontaneity, in brilliancy of conversation and natural eloquence of +thought she is without a rival. Her moral standards, too, were above the +average of her time. Her ideals were high and pure. The wealth of her +emotions and the rich coloring of sentiment in which her thoughts and +feelings were often clothed left her open to possible misconceptions. It +was her fate to be grossly misunderstood, to miss the domestic happiness +she craved, to be the victim of a sleepless persecution, to pass +her best years in a dreary exile from the life she most loved, to be +maligned by her enemies and betrayed by her friends. Her very virtues +were construed into faults and turned against her. Though we may not +lift the veil from her intimate life, we may fairly judge her by her own +ideals and her dominant traits. The world, which is rarely indulgent, +has been in the main just to her motives and her character. "I have +been ever the same, intense and sad," were among her last words. "I +have loved God, my father, and liberty." But she was a victim to the +contradictory elements in her own nature, and walked always among +storms. This nature, so complex, so rich, so ardent, so passionate, +could it ever have found permanent repose? + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. THE SALONS OF THE EMPIRE AND RESTORATION--MADAME RECAMIER + +_A Transition Period--Mme. de Montesson--Mme. de Genlis--Revival of the +Literary Spirit--Mme. de Beaumont--Mme. de Remusat--Mme. de Souza--Mme. +de Duras--Mme. de Krudener--Fascination of Mme. Recamier--Her +Friends--Her Convent Salon-- Chateaubriand--Decline of the Salon_ + +In the best sense, society is born, not made. A crowd of well-dressed +people is not necessarily a society. They may meet and disperse with no +other bond of union than a fine house and lavish hospitality can give. +It may be an assembly without unity, flavor, or influence. In the +social chaos that followed the Revolution, this truth found a practical +illustration. The old circles were scattered. The old distinctions were +virtually destroyed, so far as edicts can destroy that which lies in +the essence of things. A few who held honored names were left, or had +returned from a long exile, to find themselves bereft of rank, fortune, +and friends; but these had small disposition to form new associations, +and few points of contact with the parvenus who had mounted upon the +ruins of their order. The new society was composed largely of these +parvenus, who were ambitious for a position and a life of which they had +neither the spirit, the taste, the habits, nor the mellowing traditions. +Naturally they mistook the gilded frame for the picture. Unfamiliar +with the gentle manners, the delicate sense of honor, and the chivalrous +instincts which underlie the best social life, though not always +illustrated by its individual members, they were absorbed in matters of +etiquette of which they were uncertain, and exacting of non-essentials. +They regarded society upon its commercial side, contended over questions +of precedence, and, as one of the most observing of their contemporaries +has expressed it, "bargained for a courtesy and counted visits." "I have +seen quarrels in the imperial court," she adds, "over a visit more or +less long, more or less deferred." Perhaps it is to be considered that +in a new order which has many aggressive elements, this balancing +of courtesies is not without a certain raison d'etre as a protection +against serious inroads upon time and hospitality; but the fault lies +behind all this, in the lack of that subtle social sense which makes the +discussion of these things superfluous, not to say impossible. + +It was the wish of Napoleon to reconstruct a society that should rival +in brilliancy the old courts. With this view he called to his aid a few +women whose names, position, education, and reputation for esprit and +fine manners he thought a sufficient guarantee of success. But he +soon learned that it could not be commanded at will. The reply of the +Duchesse d'Brantes, who has left us so many pleasant reminiscences of +this period, in which she was an actor as well as an observer, was very +apt. + +"You can do all that I wish," he said to her; "you are all young, and +almost all pretty; ah, well! A young and pretty woman can do anything +she likes." + +"Sire, what your Majesty says may be true," she replied, "but only to +a certain point. If the Emperor, instead of his guard and his good +soldiers, had only conscripts who would recoil under fire, he could not +win great battles like that of Austerlitz. Nevertheless, he is the first +general in the world." + +But this social life was to serve a personal end. It was to furnish an +added instrument of power to the autocrat who ruled, to reflect always +and everywhere the glory of Napoleon. The period which saw its cleverest +woman in hopeless exile, and its most beautiful one under a similar +ban for the crime of being her friend, was not one which favored +intellectual supremacy. The empire did not encourage literature, it +silenced philosophy, and oppressed the talent that did not glorify +itself. Its blighting touch rested upon the whole social fabric. The +finer elements which, to some extent, entered into it were lost in the +glitter of display and pretension. The true spirit of conversation was +limited to private coteries that kept themselves in the shade, and were +too small to be noted. + +The salon which represented the best side of the new regime was that +of Mme. de Montesson, wife of the Duc d'Orleans, a woman of brilliant +talents, finished manners, great knowledge of the world, fine gifts of +conversation, and, what was equally essential, great discrimination and +perfect tact. If her niece, Mme. de Genlis, is to be trusted, she had +more ambition that originality, her reputation was superior to her +abilities, and her beauty covered many imperfections. But she had +experience, finesse, and prestige. Napoleon was quick to see the value +of such a woman in reorganizing a court, and treated her with the +greatest consideration, even asking her to instruct Josephine in the old +customs and usages. Her salon, however, united many elements which +it was impossible to fuse. There were people of all parties and all +conditions, a few of the nobles and returned emigres, the numerous +members of the Bonaparte family, the new military circle, together with +many people of influence "not to the manner born." Mme. de Montesson +revived the old amusements, wrote plays for the entertainment of her +guests gave grand dinners and brilliant fetes. But the accustomed links +were wanting. Her salon simply illustrates a social life in a state of +transition. + +Mme. de Genlis had lived much in the world before the Revolution, and +her position in the family of the Duc d'Orleans, together with her great +versatility of talent, had given her a certain vogue. Author, musician, +teacher, moralist, critic, poser, egotist, femme d'esprit, and friend +of princes, her romantic life would fill a volume and cannot be even +touched upon in a few lines. After ten years of exile she returned to +Paris, and her salon at the Arsenal was a center for a few celebrities. +Many of these names have small significance today. A few men like +Talleyrand, LaHarpe, Fontanes, and Cardinal Maury were among her +friends, and she was neutral enough, or diplomatic enough, not to give +offense to the new government. But she was a woman of many affectations, +and in spite of her numerous accomplishments, her cleverness, and her +literary fame, the circle she gathered about her was never noted for +its brilliancy or its influence. As a historic figure, she is more +remarkable for the variety of her voluminous work, her educational +theories, and her observations upon the world in which she lived, than +for talents of a purely social order. + +One is little inclined to dwell upon the ruling society of this +period. It had neither the dignity of past traditions nor freedom of +intellectual expression. Its finer shades were drowned in loud and +glaring colors. The luxury that could be commanded counted for more than +the wit and intelligence that could not. + +As the social elements readjusted themselves on a more natural basis, +there were a few salons out of the main drift of the time in which the +literary spirit flourished once more, blended with the refined tastes, +the elegant manners, and the amiable courtesy that had distinguished the +old regime. But the interval in which history was made so rapidly, and +the startling events of a century were condensed into a decade, +had wrought many vital changes. It was no longer the spirit of the +eighteenth century that reappeared under its revived and attractive +forms. We note a tone of seriousness that had no permanent place in that +world of esprit and skepticism, of fine manners and lax morals, which +divided its allegiance between fashion and philosophy. The survivors of +so many heart-breaking tragedies, with their weary weight of dead hopes +and sad memories, found no healing balm in the cold speculation and +scathing wit of Diderot or Voltaire. Even the devotees of philosophy +gave it but a half-hearted reverence. It was at this moment that +Chateaubriand, saturated with the sorrows of his age, and penetrated +with the hopelessness of its philosophy, offered anew the truths that +had sustained the suffering and broken-hearted for eighteen centuries, +in a form so sympathetic, so fascinating, that it thrilled the sensitive +spirits of his time, and passed like an inspiration into the literature +of the next fifty years. The melancholy of "Rene" found its divine +consolation in the "Genius of Christianity." It was this spirit that +lent a new and softer coloring to the intimate social life that blended +in some degree the tastes and manners of the old noblesse with a refined +and tempered form of modern thought. It recalls, in many points, the +best spirit of the seventeenth century. There is a flavor of the same +seriousness, the same sentiment. It is the sentiment that sent so many +beautiful women to the solitude of the cloister, when youth had faded +and the air of approaching age began to grow chilly. But it is not to +the cloister that these women turn. They weave romantic tales out of +the texture of their own lives, they repeat their experiences, their +illusions, their triumphs, and their disenchantments. As the day grows +more somber and the evening shadows begin to fall, they meditate, they +moralize, they substitute prayers for dreams. But they think also. The +drama of the late years had left no thoughtful soul without earnest +convictions. There were numerous shades of opinion, many finely drawn +issues. In a few salons these elements were delicately blended, and if +they did not repeat the brilliant triumphs of the past, if they focused +with less power the intellectual light which was dispersed in many new +channels, they have left behind them many fragrant memories. One is +tempted to linger in these temples of a goddess half-dethroned. One +would like to study these women who added to the social gifts of their +race a character that had risen superior to many storms, hearts that +were mellowed and purified by premature sorrow, and intellects that had +taken a deeper and more serious tone from long brooding over the great +problems of their time. But only a glance is permitted us here. Most of +them have been drawn in living colors by Saint-Beuve, from whom I gather +here and there a salient trait. + +Who that is familiar with the fine and exquisite thought of Joubert can +fail to be interested in the delicate and fragile woman whom he met +in her supreme hour of suffering, to find in her a rare and permanent +friend, a literary confidante, and an inspiration? Mme. de Beaumont--the +daughter of Montmorin, who had been a colleague of Necker in the +ministry--had been forsaken by a worthless husband, had seen father, +mother, brother, perish by the guillotine, and her sister escape it only +by losing her reason, and then her life, before the fatal day. She, too, +had been arrested with the others, but was so ill and weak that she was +left to die by the roadside en route to Paris--a fate from which she +was saved by the kindness of a peasant. It was at this moment that +Joubert befriended her. These numerous and crushing sorrows had +shattered her health, which was never strong, but during the few +brief years that remained to her she was the center of a coterie more +distinguished for quality than numbers. Joubert and Chateaubriand were +its leading spirits, but it included also Fontanes, Pasquier, Mme. de +Vintimille, Mme. de Pastoret, and other friends who had survived the +days in which she presided with such youthful dignity over her father's +salon. The fascination of her fine and elevated intellect, her gentle +sympathy, her keen appreciation of talent, and her graces of manner lent +a singular charm to her presence. Her character was aptly expressed +by this device which Rulhiere had suggested for her seal: "Un souffle +m'agite et rien ne m'ebrante." Chateaubriand was enchanted with a nature +so pure, so poetic, and so ardent. He visited her daily, read to her +"Atala" and "Rene," and finished the "Genius of Christianity" under her +influence. He was young then, and that she loved him is hardly doubtful, +though the friendship of Joubert was far truer and more loyal than the +passing devotion of this capricious man of genius, who seems to have +cared only for his own reflection in another soul. But this sheltered +nook of thoughtful repose, this conversational oasis in a chaotic period +had a short duration. Mme. de Beaumont died at Rome, where she had +gone in the faint hope of reviving her drooping health, in 1803. +Chateaubriand was there, watched over her last hours with Bertin, and +wrote eloquently of her death. Joubert mourned deeply and silently over +the light that had gone out of his life. + +We have pleasant reminiscences of the amiable, thoughtful, and +spirituelle Mme. de Remusat, who has left us such vivid records of the +social and intimate life of the imperial court. A studious and secluded +childhood, prematurely saddened by the untimely fate of her father in +the terrible days of 1794, an early and congenial marriage, together +with her own wise penetration and clear intellect, enabled her to +traverse this period without losing her delicate tone or serious +tastes. She had her quiet retreat into which the noise and glare did +not intrude, where a few men of letters and thoughtful men of the world +revived the old conversational spirit. She amused her idle hours by +writing graceful tales, and, after the close of her court life and the +weakening of her health, she turned her thoughts towards the education +and improvement of her sex. Blended with her wide knowledge of the +world, there is always a note of earnestness, a tender coloring of +sentiment, which culminates towards the end in a lofty Christian +resignation. + +We meet again at this time a woman known to an earlier generation as +Mme. de Flahaut, and made familiar to us through the pens of Talleyrand +and Gouverneur Morris. She saw her husband fall by the guillotine, and, +after wandering over Europe for years as an exile, became the wife of M. +de Souza, and, returning to Paris, took her place in a quiet corner of +the unaccustomed world, writing softly colored romances after the manner +of Mme. de La Fayette, wearing with grace the honors her literary fame +brought her, and preserving the tastes, the fine courtesies, the gentle +manners, the social charms, and the delicate vivacity of the old regime. + +One recalls, too, Mme. de Duras, whose father, the noble and fearless +Kersaint, was the companion of Mme. Roland at the scaffold; who drifted +to our own shores until the storms had passed, and, after saving her +large fortune in Martinique, returned matured and saddened to France. As +the wife of the Duc de Duras, she gathered around her a circle of rank, +talent, and distinction. Chateaubriand, Humboldt, Curier, de Montmorency +were among her friends. What treasures of thought and conversation do +these names suggest! What memories of the past, what prophecies for the +future! Mme. de Duras, too, wore gracefully the mantle of authorship +with which she united pleasant household cares. She, too, put something +of the sad experiences of her own life into romances which reflect the +melancholy of this age of restlessness and lost illusions. She, too, +like many of the women of her time whose youth had been blighted by +suffering, passed into an exalted Christian strain. The friend of Mme. +de Stael, the literary CONFIDANTE of Chateaubriand, the woman of many +talents, many virtues, and many sorrows, died with words of faith and +hope and divine consolation on her lips. + +The devotion of Mme. de Cantal, the mysticism of Mme. Guyon, find a +nineteenth-century counterpart in the spiritual illumination of Mme. +de Krudener. Passing from a life of luxury and pleasure to a life of +penitence and asceticism, singularly blending worldliness and piety, +opening her salon with prayer, and adding a new sensation to the gay +life of Paris, this adviser of Alexander I, and friend of Benjamin +Constant, who put her best life into the charming romances which ranked +next to "Corinne" and "Delphine" in their time; this beautiful woman, +novelist, prophetess, mystic, illuminee, fanatic, with the passion of +the South and the superstitious vein of the far North, disappeared +from the world she had graced, and gave up her life in an ecstasy of +sacrifice in the wilderness of the Crimea. + +It is only to indicate the altered drift of the social life that flowed +in quiet undercurrents during the Empire and came to the surface again +after the Restoration; to trace lightly the slow reaction towards the +finer shades of modern thought and modern morality, that I touch--so +briefly and so inadequately--upon these women who represent the best +side of their age, leaving altogether untouched many of equal gifts and +equal note. + +There is one, however, whose salon gathered into itself the last rays +of the old glory, and whose fame as a social leader has eclipsed that of +all her contemporaries. Mme. Recamier, "the last flower of the salons," +is the woman of the century who has been, perhaps, most admired, most +loved, and most written about. It has been so much the fashion to +dwell upon her marvelous beauty, her kindness, and her irresistible +fascination, that she has become, to some extent, an ideal figure +invested with a subtle and poetic grace that folds itself about her +like the invisible mantle of an enchantress. Her actual relations to the +world in which she lived extended over a long period, terminating only +on the threshold of our own generation. Without strong opinions or +pronounced color, loyal to her friends rather than to her convictions, +of a calm and happy temperament, gentle in character, keenly +appreciative of all that was intellectually fine and rare, but without +exceptional gifts herself, fascinating in manner, perfect in tact, with +the beauty of an angel and the heart of a woman--she presents a fitting +close to the long reign of the salons. + +We hear of her first in the bizarre circles of the Consulate, as the +wife of a man who was rather father than husband, young, fresh, lovely, +accomplished, surrounded by the luxuries of wealth, and captivating all +hearts by that indefinable charm of manner which she carried with her +to the end of her life. Both at Paris and at her country house at Clichy +she was the center of a company in which the old was discreetly mingled +with the new, in which enmities were tempered, antagonisms softened, and +the most discordant elements brought into harmonious rapport, for the +moment, at least, by her gracious word or her winning smile. Here we +find Adrien and Mathieu de Montmorency, who already testified the rare +friendship that was to outlive years and misfortunes; Mme. de Stael +before her exile; Narbonne, Barrere, Bernadotte, Moreau, and many +distinguished foreigners. Lucien Bonaparte was at her feet; LaHarpe was +devoted to her interests; Napoleon was trying in vain to draw her into +his court, and treasuring up his failure to another. The salon of Mme. +Recamie was not in any sense philosophical or political, but after the +cruel persecution of LaHarpe, the banishment or Mme. de Stael, and the +similar misfortunes of other friends, her sympathies were too strong for +her diplomacy, and it gradually fell into the ranks of the opposition. +It was well known that the emperor regarded all who went there as his +enemies, and this young and innocent woman was destined to feel the full +bitterness of his petty displeasure. We cannot trace here the incidents +of her varied career, the misfortunes of the father to whom she was a +ministering angel, the loss of her husband's fortune and her own, the +years of wandering and exile, the second period of brief and illusive +prosperity, and the swift reverses which led to her final retreat. She +was at the height of her beauty and her fame in the early days of the +Restoration, when her salon revived its old brilliancy, and was a center +in which all parties met on neutral ground. Her intimate relations with +those in power gave it a strong political influence, but this was never +a marked feature, as it was mainly personal. + +But the position in which one is most inclined to recall Mme. Recamier +is in the convent of Abbaye-aux-Bois, where, divested of fortune and +living in the simplest manner, she preserved for nearly thirty years the +fading traditions of the old salons. Through all the changes which tried +her fortitude and revealed the latent heroism of her character, she +seems to have kept her sweet serenity unbroken, bending to the passing +storms with the grace of a facile nature, but never murmuring at the +inevitable. One may find in this inflexible strength and gentleness +of temper a clue to the subtle fascination which held the devoted +friendship of so many gifted men and women, long after the fresh charm +of youth was gone. + +The intellectual gifts of Mme. Recamier, as has been said before, were +not of a high or brilliant order. She was neither profound nor original, +nor given to definite thought. Her letters were few, and she has left +no written records by which she can be measured. She read much, was +familiar with current literature, also with religious works. But the +world is slow to accord a twofold superiority, and it is quite possible +that the fame of her beauty has prevented full justice to her mental +abilities. Mme. de Genlis tells us that she has a great deal of esprit. +It is certain that no woman could have held her place as the center of +a distinguished literary circle and the confidante and adviser of +the first literary men of her time, without a fine intellectual +appreciation. "To love what is great," said Mme. Necker "is almost to be +great one's self." Ballanche advised her to translate Petrarch, and she +even began the work, but it was never finished. "Believe me," he writes, +"you have at your command the genius of music, flowers, imagination, +and elegance. ... Do not fear to try your hand on the golden lyre of the +poets." He may have been too much blinded by a friendship that verged +closely upon a more passionate sentiment to be an altogether impartial +critic, but it was a high tribute to her gifts that a man of such +conspicuous talents thought her capable of work so exacting. Her +qualities were those of taste and a delicate imagination rather than of +reason. Her musical accomplishments were always a resource. She sang, +played the harp and piano, and we hear of her during a summer at Albano +playing the organ at vespers and high mass. She danced exquisitely, and +it was her ravishing grace that suggested the shawl dance of "Corinne" +to Mme. de Stael and of "Valerie" to Mme. de Krudener. One can fancy +her, too, at Coppet, playing the role of the angel to Mme. de Stael's +Hagar--a spirit of love and consolation to the stormy and despairing +soul of her friend. + +But her real power lay in the wonderful harmony of her nature, in the +subtle penetration that divined the chagrins and weaknesses of others, +only to administer a healing balm; in the delicate tact that put people +always on the best terms with themselves, and gave the finest play to +whatever talents they possessed. Add to this a quality of beauty which +cannot be caught by pen or pencil, and one can understand the singular +sway she held over men and women alike. Mme. de Krudener, whose salon +so curiously united fashion and piety, worldliness and mysticism, was +troubled by the distraction which the entrance of Mme. Recamier was sure +to cause, and begged Benjamin Constant to write and entreat her to make +herself as little charming as possible. His note is certainly unique, +though it loses much of its piquancy in translation: + +"I acquit myself with a little embarrassment of a commission which Mme. +de Krudener has just given me. She begs you to come as little +beautiful as you can. She says that you dazzle all the world, and that +consequently every soul is troubled and attention is impossible. You +cannot lay aside your charms, but do not add to them." + +In her youth she dressed with great simplicity and was fond of wearing +white with pearls, which accorded well with the dazzling purity of her +complexion. + +Mme. Recamier was not without vanity, and this is the reverse side of +her peculiar gifts. She would have been more than mortal if she had been +quite unconscious of attractions so rare that even the children in the +street paid tribute to them. But one finds small trace of the petty +jealousies and exactions that are so apt to accompany them. She liked to +please, she wished to be loved, and this inevitably implies a shade +of coquetry in a young and beautiful woman. There is an element of +fascination in this very coquetry, with its delicate subtleties and its +shifting tints of sentiment. That she carried it too far is no doubt +true; that she did so wittingly is not so certain. Her victims were +many, and if they quietly subsided into friends, as they usually did, it +was after many struggles and heart burnings. But if she did not exercise +her power with invariable discretion, it seems to have been less the +result of vanity than a lack of decision and an amiable unwillingness to +give immediate pain, or to lose the friend with the lover. With all her +fine qualities of heart and soul, she had a temperament that saved her +from much of the suffering she thoughtlessly inflicted upon others. The +many violent passions she roused do not seem to have disturbed at all +her own serenity. The delicate and chivalrous nature of Mathieu +de Montmorency, added to his years, gave his relations to her a +half-paternal character, but that he loved her always with the profound +tenderness of a loyal and steadfast soul is apparent through all the +singularly disinterested phases of a friendship that ended only with his +life. + +Prince Augustus, whom she met at Coppet, called up a passing ripple on +the surface of her heart, sufficiently strong to lead her to suggest a +divorce to her husband, whose relations to her, though always friendly, +were only nominal. But he appealed to her generosity, and she thought of +it no more. Why she permitted her princely suitor to cherish so long the +illusions that time and distance do not readily destroy is one of the +mysteries that are not easy to solve. Perhaps she thought it more kind +to let absence wear out a passion than to break it too rudely. At all +events, he cherished no permanent bitterness, and never forgot her. At +his death, nearly forty years later he ordered her portrait by Gerard to +be returned, but her ring was buried with him. + +The various phases of the well-known infatuation of Benjamin Constant, +which led him to violate his political principles and belie his own +words rather than take a course that must result in separation from +her, suggest a page of highly colored romance. The letters of Mlle. +de Lespinasse scarcely furnish us with a more ardent episode in the +literature of hopeless passion. The worshipful devotion of Ampere and +Ballanche would form a chapter no less interesting, though less intense +and stormy. + +But the name most inseparably connected with Mme. Recamier is that of +Chateaubriand. The friendship of an unquestioned sort that seems to +have gone quite out of the world, had all the phases of a more tender +sentiment, and goes far towards disproving the charge of coldness that +has often been brought against her. It was begun after she had reached +the dreaded forties, by the death bed of Mme. de Stael, and lasted +more than thirty years. It seems to have been the single sentiment that +mastered her. One may trace in the letters of Chateaubriand the restless +undercurrents of this life that was outwardly so serene. He writes +to her from Berlin, from England, from Rome. He confides to her his +ambitions, tells her his anxieties, asks her counsel as to his plans, +chides her little jealousies, and commends his wife to her care and +attention. This recalls a remarkable side of her relations with the +world. Women are not apt to love formidable rivals, but the wives of +her friends apparently shared the admiration with which their husbands +regarded her. If they did not love her, they exchanged friendly notes, +and courtesies that were often more than cordial. She consoles Mme. de +Montmorency in her sorrow, and Mme. de Chateaubriand asks her to cheer +her husband's gloomy moods. Indeed, she roused little of that bitter +jealousy which is usually the penalty of exceptional beauty or +exceptional gifts of any sort. The sharp tongue of Mme. de Genlis lost +its sting in writing of her. She idealized her as Athenais, in the novel +of that name, which has for its background the beauties of Coppet, +and vaguely reproduces much of its life. The pious and austere Mme. +Swetchine, whose prejudices against her were so strong that for a long +time she did not wish to meet her, confessed herself at once a captive +to her "penetrating and indefinable charm." Though she did not always +escape the shafts of malice, no better tribute could be offered to the +graces of her character than the indulgence with which she was regarded +by the most severely judging of her own sex. + +But she has her days of depression. Chateaubriand is absorbed in his +ambitions and sometimes indifferent; his antagonistic attitude towards +Montmorency, who is far the nobler character of the two, is a source of +grief to her. She tries in vain to reconcile her rival friends. Once she +feels compelled to tear herself from an influence which is destroying +her happiness, and goes to Italy. But she carries within her own heart +the seeds of unrest. She still follows the movements of the man who +occupies so large a space in her horizon, sympathizes from afar with +his disappointments, and cares for his literary interest, ordering from +Tenerani, a bas-relief of a scene from "The Martyrs." + +After her return her life settles into more quiet channels. +Chateaubriand, embittered by the chagrins of political life, welcomed +her with the old enthusiasm. From this time he devoted himself +exclusively to letters, and sought his diversion in the convent-salon +which has left so wide a fame, and of which he was always the central +figure. The petted man of genius was moody and capricious. His colossal +egotism found its best solace in the gentle presence of the woman who +flattered his restless vanity, anticipated his wishes, studied his +tastes, and watched every shadow that flitted across his face. He was in +the habit of writing her a few lines in the morning; at three o'clock +he visited her, and they chatted over their tea until four, when favored +visitors began to arrive. In the evening it was a little world that met +there. The names of Ampere, Tocqueville, Montalembert, Merimee, Thierry, +and Sainte-Beuve suggest the literary quality of this circle, in which +were seen from time to time such foreign celebrities as Sir Humphry and +Lady Darcy, Maria Edgeworth, Humboldt, the Duke of Hamilton, the gifted +Duchess of Devonshire, and Miss Berry. Lamartine read his "Meditations" +and Delphine Gay her first poems. Rachel recited, and Pauline Viardot, +Garcia, Rubini, and Lablache sang. Delacroix, David, and Gerard +represented the world of art, and the visitors from the grand monde were +too numerous to mention. In this brilliant and cosmopolitan company, +what resources of wit and knowledge, what charms of beauty and elegance, +what splendors of rank and distinction were laid upon the altar of the +lovely and adored woman, who recognized all values, and never forgot the +kindly word or the delicate courtesy that put the most modest guests at +ease and brought out the best there was in them! + +One day in 1847 there was a vacant place, and the faithful Ballanche +came no more from his rooms across the street. A year later +Chateaubriand died. After the death of his wife he had wished to marry +Mme. Recamier, but she thought it best to change nothing, believing that +age and blindness had given her the right to devote herself to his last +days. To her friends she said that if she married him, he would miss the +pleasure and variety of his daily visits. + +Old, blind, broken in health and spirit, but retaining always the charm +which had given her the empire over so many hearts, she followed him in +a few months. + +Mme. Recamier represents better than any woman of her time the peculiar +talents that distinguished the leaders of some of the most famous +salons. She had tact, grace, intelligence, appreciation, and the gift of +inspiring others. The cleverest men and women of the age were to be met +in her drawing room. One found there genius, beauty, esprit, elegance, +courtesy, and the brilliant conversation which is the Gallic heritage. +But not even her surpassing fascination added to all these attractions +could revive the old power of the salon. Her coterie was charming, as a +choice circle gathered about a beautiful, refined, accomplished woman, +and illuminated by the wit and intelligence of thoughtful men, will +always be; but its influence was limited and largely personal, and it +has left no perceptible traces. Nor has it had any noted successor. It +is no longer coteries presided over by clever women that guide the age +and mold its tastes or its political destinies. The old conditions have +ceased to exist, and the prestige of the salon is gone. + +The causes that led to its decline have been already more or less +indicated. Among them, the decay of aristocratic institutions played +only a small part. The salons were au fond democratic in the sense that +all forms of distinction were recognized so far as they were amenable to +the laws of taste, which form the ultimate tribunal of social fitness in +France. But it cannot be denied that the code of etiquette which ruled +them had its foundation in the traditions of the noblesse. The genteel +manners, the absence of egotism and self-assertion, as of disturbing +passions, the fine and uniform courtesy which is the poetry of life, are +the product of ease and assured conditions. It is struggle that destroys +harmony and repose, whatever stronger qualities it may develop, and +the greater mingling of classes which inevitably resulted in this took +something from the exquisite flavor of the old society. The increase of +wealth, too, created new standards that were fatal to a life in which +the resources of wit, learning, and education in its highest sense were +the chief attractions. The greater perfection of all forms of public +amusement was not without its influence. Men drifted, also, more and +more into the one-sided life of the club. Considered as a social phase, +no single thing has been more disastrous to the unity of modern society +than this. But the most formidable enemy of the salon has been the +press. Intelligence has become too universal to be focused in a few +drawing rooms. Genius and ambition have found a broader arena. When +interest no longer led men to seek the stimulus and approval of +a powerful coterie, it ceased to be more than an elegant form of +recreation, a theater of small talents, the diversion of an idle hour. +When the press assumed the sovereignty, the salon was dethroned. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Women of the French Salons, by +Amelia Gere Mason + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WOMEN OF THE FRENCH SALONS *** + +***** This file should be named 2528.txt or 2528.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/2/2528/ + +Produced by Theresa Armao + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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