the surface, gay, witty, piquant and amusing, but lax and without great moral sense or spiritual aspiration. The dangerous influence of the many mistresses of Louis XIV. and Louis XV., of Mesdames de Montespan, Maintenon and Pompadour pervaded the atmosphere, and turned the salons into headquarters of intrigue and political conspiracy. Especially at the time of the clever Mme. de Pompadour women were everywhere the power, without which no movement could be carried through successfully. "These women," said the famous philosophical historian Montesquieu, "form a kind of republic, whose members, always active, aid and serve one another. It is a new state within the 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."
Montesquieu himself, when in Paris, made the salons of Madame de Tencin and Madame d'Aiguillon his favorite resorts.
Here he discussed with other brilliant thinkers of the time literary and political questions, and those theories, which he embodied in the most famous of his works: "Esprit des Lois" (the Spirit of the Laws). This book, dealing with law in general, with forms of government, military arrangements, taxation, economic matters, religion and individual liberty, was the first open attack on absolutism. Put on the Index by the Pope it was nevertheless eagerly read and discussed everywhere, and thus it became one of the factors leading to the French Revolution.—
Among the salons of the 18th Century, known for their influence on scientific and political life, the most remarkable was that of the Marquise de Lambert. Her magnificent appartments in the famous Palais Mazarin, decorated by artists like Watteau, were a rendezvous for the most eminent men and women, among them the best of the "Forty Immortals," or members of the Académie Française. As candidates for vacant chairs in this body were often proposed here the Salon Lambert was called "the Antechamber to Immortality."
The quality of the character and intellect of the hostess of this salon may be judged from a few of the bits of advice she wrote to her son. "I exhort you much more to cultivate your heart than to perfect your mind; the true greatness of the man is in the heart."—"Let your studies flow into your manners, and your readings show themselves in your virtues."—"It is merit which should separate you from the people, not dignity nor pride."—"Too much modesty is a languor of the soul, which prevents it from taking flight and carrying itself rapidly towards glory."—"Seek the society of your
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