es not come to
a woman so much from what she knows as from what others do not know;
and it is, without doubt, singularity that makes it difficult to be as
others are not, without being exposed to blame. Seriously, is not the
ordinary idea of the education of women a peculiar one? They are not
to be coquettes nor gallants, and yet they are carefully taught all
that is peculiar to gallantry without being permitted to know anything
that can strengthen their virtue or occupy their minds. Don't imagine,
however, that I do not wish woman to be elegant, to dance or to sing;
but I should like to see as much care devoted to her mind as to her
body, and between being ignorant and _savante_ I should like to see
a road taken which would prevent annoyance from an impertinent
sufficiency or from a tiresome stupidity. I should like very much to
be able to say of anyone of my sex that she knows a hundred things of
which she does not boast, that she has a well-balanced mind, that she
speaks well, writes correctly, and knows the world; but I do not wish
it to be said of her that she is a _femme savante_. The best women of
the world when they are together in a large number rarely say anything
that is worth anything and are more ennuye than if they were alone; on
the contrary, there is something that I cannot express, which makes it
possible for men to enliven and divert a company of ladies more than
the most amiable woman on earth could do."

Mlle. de Scudery considered marriage a long slavery and preferred
virtuous celibacy enlivened by platonic gallantry. When youth and
adorers had passed away, she found consolation in interchanges of
wit, congenial conversation, and the cultivation of the mind by study.
Making of love a doctrine, a manual of morals or _savoir-vivre_, has
had a refining effect upon civilization; but the process has rendered
the emotion itself too subtle, select, narrow, enervating, and
exhausting; it has resulted in the production of splendid books
with heroes and heroines of the higher type, and has purified the
atmosphere of social life; this phase of its influence, however,
is felt by only a set of the elite, and its adherents are scattered
through every age and every country. Mlle. de Scudery was a perfect
representative of that type, but healthy and normal rather than
morbidly aesthetic.

An opposition party soon arose, formed by those, especially, who
entertained different ideas of the sphere and duties of woman