ainly social, religious, moral,
and literary, while that of the woman of the sixteenth century was
mainly political. This difference was the result of the greater
advantages of education and training enjoyed by the females of the
later period.

In the beginning of the seventeenth century, young girls were granted
greater privileges and received more attention from men and society
than did their predecessors; they thus had more opportunities for
mental development, more occasion to become aware of the temptations
and injustices of life, without falling prey to them. Such young girls
as Julie d'Angennes, Mlle. d'Arquenay, and Mlle. de Pisani, took
part in the balls, fetes, garden parties, and all amusements in which
society indulged. They met young men of their own age and became
intimately acquainted with them, morals were purer, marriages of
affection were much more frequent, and the state of married life was
much more congenial, than in any other century. Young men paid
court to the older ladies, to refine their manners and sharpen their
intellects, but not for any immoral purpose. To a certain extent
women were more world-wise when they reached the marriageable age, and
inspired respect and admiration rather than passion and desire as in
the next century.

Young girls of the seventeenth century were early placed in a convent,
and when they left it they were ready for marriage; in the meantime,
they frequently visited home and associated with their parents and
brothers; at the convents intellectual intercourse with people of high
rank and men of letters was encouraged. Yet the discipline at those
institutions was very rigid, the boarders being more carefully watched
then than later on; two nuns always accompanied them on their walks,
and when not busy with their studies, to prevent the mind from
wandering, they were kept busy with their hands; "the transports of
the soul of the young girl, as every reflection of the intelligence,
are watched and held in check, every one of her inclinations opposed,
all originality suppressed."

At first the convents were reproached for stifling all culture and
development and applying only correction and mortification of the
flesh. Mme. de Maintenon opposed such a state of affairs, but her
methods discouraged true independence. The happiness of her charges
was her one aim, but they had no voice in the matter. When of
marriageable age, they were given a trousseau and a husband; howe