superior to that exerted by her in the sixteenth century, in that it
rendered sacred both her and her honor; but, in spite of the refining
restraint of the salon, brutality was still the main characteristic
of man. To express beautiful sentiments in the midst of jealousies,
rivalries, adventures, complaints, and despair, was the _savoir-vivre_
of the Catherine de' Medici type of elegance brought from Italy in the
sixteenth century. This caused the extremes of external fastidiousness
and internal grossness to be embodied in the same individual; in the
eighteenth century, man was, inwardly as well as outwardly, refined,
mild, kind, a friend of pleasure; and therein lies the fundamental
difference between the _honnete homme_ of Louis XIV. and the _homme
du monde_ of Louis XV. The seventeenth century type of man is midway
between that of the sixteenth and eighteenth--more polished and less
gross than the former, yet lacking the knowledge and culture of the
latter.

When in the seventeenth century the two all-powerful forces, brute
force and money, of the preceding century were replaced by those of
money and the pen, the decay of the impoverished and unintellectual
nobility became but a question of time. The day when great gentlemen
might scorn men of letters and learning was rapidly passing; with
the French Academy arose a new spirit, a fresh impulse was given to
intellectual attainments. Although treated as inferiors, the literary
men of the seventeenth century spoke of the aristocracy in a spirit
of raillery, but slightly veiled with respect; and the nobility while
remaining, in its way, courageous and glorious, lost its prestige,
force, and influence.

In the seventeenth century, money acquired a certain purchasing value
which procured advantages and luxuries impossible in the preceding
period when the brave man was worth infinitely more than the rich
who, scorned and considered as a rapacious Jew, was isolated and in
constant fear of being robbed or killed. As the number of government
officials increased, individual fortunes grew; men became enormously
wealthy through the various offices bought by them or given to them by
the government. The financier was a king and many marriages of princes
and dukes with daughters of men of wealth are recorded. Women of
station, however, seldom married beneath their rank, because they
lost their titles by so doing, and titles were still the only road
to social success. As a rule,