. Just
as the type of the salon of Mme. de Rambouillet degenerated among the
aristocracy into those of the Hotel de Conde, Mme. de Sable, and Mlle.
de Luxembourg, so the type of the salon of Mlle. de Scudery gave rise
to a number of literary salons among the _bourgeoisie_. The aim of
the latter institutions was to imitate her example in endeavoring to
spread the taste for courtesy, elegant manners and the higher forms
of learning; all these aspirations, however, drifted into mere
affectation, while the requisites of welcome at the original salon
were simplicity, freedom from affectation, delicacy, amiability, and
dignity.

As a writer, Mlle. de Scudery occupies no mean position in the history
of French literature of the seventeenth century. Her descriptions
and anecdotes possess a wonderful charm and display unusual power of
analysis; in them, Victor Cousin recognizes a truly virile spirit. In
the history of the French novel, she forms a transition period, her
productions having both a psychological interest and a historical
value of a very high degree. Through her finesse and marvellous
feminine penetration, her truthful, delicate and fine portraitures,
which were widely imitated later, she has exerted an extensive
influence.

With Mlle. de Scudery "we have substance, real character painting,
true psychological penetration, and realism in observation," while
previously the novel, under such men as Gomberville and La Calprenede,
was imaginative and full of fancy. Her talent, then, in that field,
lay in the analysis and development of sentiments, in delineation of
character, in the creation and reproduction of refined and ingenious
conversations, and in her reflections on subjects pertaining to
morality and literature--in all of which she displayed justness and
entire liberty and independence of thought. Her poetry, delicate
compliment or innocent gallantries, was a mere bagatelle of the salon.

Charming as well as accomplished, Mlle. de Scudery was as intelligent,
witty, and intellectual a woman as could be found in the seventeenth
century; and in the history of that period she retains an undisputed
position as one of its great leaders of thought and progress. Her
salon, inasmuch as the salon of Mme. de Lambert was not opened until
1710, and therefore the discussion of it belongs properly to the
beginning of the eighteenth century, really closes the literary
progress of the seventeenth century.

The influence of t