with compliments, calling
him the only orthodox representative of good taste. In general, she
detested philosophers, because their hearts were cold and their minds
preoccupied with themselves.

Mme. du Deffand had an inherent passion for simplicity, frankness,
justice, and a hatred for deceit and affectation; but, strange as it
may seem, her nature required variety in her pleasure--new people, new
pursuits, new amusements, new agitations for her hungry mind; she was
too critical to be contented and to put implicit trust in her friends.
An agnostic, always endeavoring to probe into the nature of things,
the possession of a personal, living faith was yet the strongest
desire of her heart; all her life she longed for the peace that
religion affords, but this was denied her, although she had the
spiritual assistance of the most famous of the clergy, attended
church, had her oratory, her confessor, and faithfully studied the
Bible; all was vain--belief would not come to her. The marriage tie
was not sacred to her, which was the case with many of the French
women of the day, but she went further in lacking all reverence for
religious ceremony, though she respected the beliefs of others.

She was all wit and intellectuality. In order to keep her friends from
falling under the spell of ennui, she devoted herself to the culinary
art, and her suppers became famous for their rare dishes. "She is an
example of the type that was predominant in the time--one that had
lived too much and was dying from excess of knowledge and pleasure;
but she sought that which did not exist in that age,--serenity, peace,
faith. She was passionate, sensitive, and sympathetic, in a cold,
heartless, and unfeeling world. She needed variety; being bored with
society, solitude, husband, lovers, herself, nothing remained for her
but to await deliverance by death." This came to her in 1780.

[Illustration 3:
_MME. DU CHATELET PROTECTING VOLTAIRE
After the painting by Mme. E. Armand Leleux._
_A woman who played a prominent part in society during the Regency, but
who had no salon in the proper sense of the word, was Mme. du Chatelet,
commonly called Voltaire's Emilie. She was especially interested in
sciences, and did more than any other woman of that time to encourage
nature study. It was at her Chateau de Cirey that Voltaire found
protection when threatened with a second visit to the Bastille; and
there, from time to time for sixteen years, he did some o