, friendly, free, and intimate nature; they were like
the members of a large family. By them, love was not considered a
weakness but a mark of the elevation of the soul, and every man had
to be sensitive to beauty. When the Duchesse d'Aiguillon presented
to society her nephew, who later became the Duke of Richelieu, she
advised and encouraged him to complete his education and make of
himself an _honnete homme_ by association with the elder Mlle. du
Vigean and other women; the object of this procedure was to polish his
manners, elevate his instincts, and develop ease in deportment toward
the ladies. There was no hint of the vulgar or licentious pleasures
which became the characteristics of love in the eighteenth century.

The woman who inaugurated the movement toward purity of morals,
decency of language, polish of manners, and courtesy to woman, was
Mme. de Rambouillet. Catherine de Vivonne, Marquise de Rambouillet,
whose mother was a great Roman lady and whose father had been
ambassador to Rome, inherited that pride of race and independence of
spirit for which she was so well known. In 1600, she was married, at
the age of twelve, to the Marquis de Rambouillet who was her senior by
eleven years, but who treated her with deference and respect rare at
that time. Husband and wife were perfectly congenial, and their happy
and peaceful life was a great contrast to that led by the majority of
the married couples of the day. Absolutely irreproachable in conduct,
she set a worthy example for all women who knew her.

Her high ideals, independence of character, family duties, and the
general debauchery, which was incompatible with her rigid chastity and
"precocious wisdom," caused her to withdraw from the court in 1608;
two years later, she decided to open her salon to such aristocratic
and cultured persons as appreciated womanly grace, wit, and taste. Her
familiarity with Italian and Spanish history and art placed her at
the head of intellectual as well as moral movements. She surrounded
herself with the distinguished men and women of the day, and her
salon, which in every detail was decorated and arranged for pleasure,
immediately became, through the exquisite charm with which she
presided, the one goal of the cultured; her blue room was the
sanctuary of polite society and she was its high priestess.

The highest ambition of the _habitue_ of the salon was to sing, dance,
and converse artistically and with refinement. A reacti