INTRODUCTION.
The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, says the author of "A Discourse on the Origin of Fairy Tales," had frozen every pen. No one dared to write anything for fear of displeasing the king, who had appointed royal censors of the press as substitutes for the Doctors of the Sorbonne, who had themselves superseded the Inquisitors of the Holy Office. But this congelation was merely temporary. Since Madame de Maintenon had arisen from the rank of governess to the children of Madame de Montespan to that of the wife, though not the queen, of Louis XIV., the Court had adopted a tone which had been properly assumed by a pious woman surrounded by legitimate princes still young, and to whom good examples were indispensable. Age, public misfortunes, and the character of his connexion with Madame de Maintenon, had brought Louis himself back to the steps of the altar and the calm of private society. Amongst the tutors selected for the princes of the blood were Bossuet and Fenelon. The talent of these justly celebrated men popularized the purest morals, by covering them with flowers, and dressing them in the most pleasing forms. Books for the instruction of princes were eagerly multiplied, a select library was printed of them; it seemed as if the whole nation had determined to purify its gallantry in the crucible of a wise yet infantile morality. At this period there lived a number of women who cultivated letters successfully; others, who esteemed them, wrote and
