he lady of his choice; it was
an attraction of common intellectual interests and usually lasted for
life; in the eighteenth century, a liaison was essentially immoral,
rarely a union of interests, but rather one of passions and physical
propensities. Such relations developed and fostered deceit, intrigues,
infidelity, and rivalry, one woman endeavoring to allure the lover of
another; affairs of that nature were the chief topic of conversation
in social circles, and were soon reflected in every phase of the
intelligent world. This will be seen in the study of the eighteenth
century.

CHAPTER VIII

SALON LEADERS MME. DE TENCIN, MME. GEOFFRIN, MME. DU DEFFAND, MLLE. DE
LESPINASSE, MME. DU CHATELET

In studying the vast numbers of salons of the eighteenth century,
three types are discernible, each of which was prominent and in full
sway throughout the century up to the Revolution. To the first class
belong the great literary and philosophical salons which, though not
political in nature, finally changed politics; such were the
circles of Mme. de Tencin, Mme. Geoffrin, Mme. du Deffand, Mlle. de
Lespinasse, Mme. Necker, Mme. d'Epinay, Mme. de Genlis; with these
every literary student is familiar. The second class includes the
smaller and less important literary, philosophical, and social
salons--those of Mme. de Marchais, Mme. de Persan, Mme. de Villars,
Mme. de Vaines, and of D'Alembert, D'Holbach, Helvetius. The third
class is of a social nature exclusively, good breeding and good tone
being the essentials; its conspicuous features were the dinners
and suppers of Suard, Saurin, the Abbes Raynal and Morellet, of the
Palais-Royal of Mme. de Blot, of the Temple of the Prince of Conti,
those of Mme. de Beauvau, Mme. de Gramont, M. de La Popeliniere, and
others.

The distinctions thus made will not hold throughout, but they
facilitate the presentation of a subject that is exceedingly
complicated. It may almost be said that each generation of the
eighteenth century had a salon with a different physiognomy; those
of 1710, 1730, 1760, and 1780 were all inspired by different motives,
causes, and events, and were all led by women of different histories
and aspirations, whose common idol was man, but whose ideas of what
constituted a hero were as widely different as was the constitution of
society in the respective periods. Not until the middle of the reign
of Louis XIV. did social life become detached from Versailles, a