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 her mind is wonderfully great, 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."
Fearing to lose her liberty Mlle, de Scudéry never married. "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."
Under the pseudonym of "Sappho" Mlle, de Scudéry was acknowledged as the first "blue-stocking" of France and of the world. Several of her novels, in which she aimed at universal accomplishments, were the delight of all Europe. Having studied mankind in her contemporaries, she knew how to analyze and describe their characters with fidelity and point.
Another noteworthy salon of the 17th Century was that of the beautiful and amiable Marquise de Sablé, one of the favorites of Mme. de Rambouillet. It was she who set the fashion, at that time, of condensing the thoughts and experiences of life into maxims and epigrams. While this was her special gift to literature, her influence became also felt through what she inspired others to do. A few of her maxims, as proven in Mrs. Masons articles about the French Salons, are worth copying, as they show the estimate Mme. De Sablé 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 thoughts, 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." —
"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."—With the death of the Marquise de Sable in 1678 the last salon of the brilliant era of the Renaissance was closed.
With the approach of that period of affected and artificial life, known as the Rococco, new types of women came to
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