n on an equal status with man; for she wrote two
treatises on woman's condition and rank, insisting upon a better
education for her, though she herself was well educated. Following the
events of the day with a careful scrutiny and interpreting them in her
writings, she showed a remarkable gift of perspective and deduction
and an intimate knowledge of politics. The fact that she was severely,
even spitefully, attacked in both poetry and prose but proves that her
writings on women were effective.

Some writers claim that the founding of the French Academy had its
inception at her rooms, where many of the members met and where, later
on, they discussed the work of the Academy. Her one desire for the
language was to have it advance and develop, preserving every word,
resorting to old ones, accepting new ones only when necessary. Thus,
among French female educators, Mlle. de Gournay deserves a prominent
place, because of her high ideals and earnest efforts in the study of
the language, for the courage with which she advanced her convictions
regarding woman, and for the high moral standard which she set by her
own conduct.

In Louise Labe--_La Belle Cordiere_--we meet a warrior, as well as a
woman of letters. The great movement of the Renaissance, as it swept
northward, invaded Lyons; there Louise Labe endeavored to do what
Ronsard and the Pleiade were doing at Paris. A great part of her youth
she passed in war, wearing man's apparel and assuming the name of
"Captain Loys"; at an early age, she left home with a company of
soldiers passing through Lyons on the way to lay siege to Perpignan,
where she showed pluck, bravery, and skill. Upon her return, she
married a merchant ropemaker, whence her sobriquet--_La Belle
Cordiere_.

She soon won a reputation by gathering about her a circle of men, who
complimented her in the most elegant language and read poetry with
her. Science and literature were discussed and the praises of love
sung with passionate, inflamed eloquence. In this circle of congenial
spirits, "she gave rise to doubts as to her virtue." As her husband
was wealthy, she was able to collect an immense library and to
entertain at her pleasure; she could converse in almost any language,
and all travellers stopped at Lyons and called to see her at her
salon. Her writings consisted of sonnets, elegies, and dialogues in
prose; her influence, being too local, is not marked. Her greatest
claim to attention is that she enc