d
a considerable number in prose and even in verse, and published the
whole in a handsome quarto volume, admirably printed, and now become
very rare, under the title, 'Divers Portraits.' Only thirty copies
were printed, not for sale, but to be given as presents by
Mademoiselle. The work had a prodigious success. That which had
made the fortune of Mademoiselle de Scudery's romances--the pleasure
of seeing one's portrait a little flattered, curiosity to see that of
others, the passion which the middle class always have had and will
have for knowing what goes on in the aristocratic world (at that time
not very easy of access), the names of the illustrious persons who
were here for the first time described physically and morally with
the utmost detail, great ladies transformed all at once into writers,
and unconsciously inventing a new manner of writing, of which no book
gave the slightest idea, and which was the ordinary manner of
speaking of the aristocracy; this undefinable mixture of the natural,
the easy, and at the same time of the agreeable, and supremely
distinguished--all this charmed the court and the town, and very
early in the year 1659 permission was asked of Mademoiselle to give a
new edition of the privileged book for the use of the public in
general."

The fashion thus set, portraits multiplied throughout France, until in
1688 La Bruyere adopted the form in his "Characters," and ennobled it by
divesting it of personality. We shall presently see that a still greater
work than La Bruyere's also owed its suggestion to a woman, whose salon
was hardly a less fascinating resort than the Hotel de Rambouillet
itself.

In proportion as the literature of a country is enriched and culture
becomes more generally diffused, personal influence is less effective in
the formation of taste and in the furtherance of social advancement. It
is no longer the coterie which acts on literature, but literature which
acts on the coterie; the circle represented by the word _public_ is ever
widening, and ambition, poising itself in order to hit a more distant
mark, neglects the successes of the salon. What was once lavished
prodigally in conversation is reserved for the volume or the "article,"
and the effort is not to betray originality rather than to communicate
it. As the old coach-roads have sunk into disuse through the creation of
railways, so