erse to all
violent passions, seems to have been peculiarly fitted for this calm and
enduring sentiment which cast a soft radiance, as of Indian summer, over
her closing years.

At a later period, the sacred name of friendship was unfortunately used
to veil relations that had lost all the purity and delicacy of their
primitive character. This fact has sometimes been rather illogically
cited, as an argument not only against the moral influence of the salons
but against the intellectual development of women. There is neither
excuse nor palliation to be offered for the Italian manners and the
recognized system of amis intimes, which disgraced the French society
the next century. But, while it is greatly to be deplored that the moral
sense has not always kept pace with the cultivation of the intellect,
there is no reason for believing that license of manners is in any
degree the result of it. There is striking evidence to the contrary, in
the incredible ignorance and laxity that found its reaction in the early
salons; also in the dissolute lives of many distinguished women of rank
who had no pretension to wit or education. The fluctuation of morals,
which has always existed, must be traced to quite other causes. Virtue
has not invariably accompanied intelligence, but it has been still less
the companion of ignorance.

It was Mme. de Sable who set the fashion of condensing the thoughts and
experiences of life into maxims and epigrams. This was her specific
gift to literature; but her influence was felt through what she inspired
others to do rather than through what she did herself. It was her good
fortune to be brought into contact with the genius of a Pascal and a
La Rochefoucauld,--men who reared immortal works upon the pastime of
an idle hour. One or two of her own maxims will suffice to indicate her
style as well as to show the estimate she placed upon form and measure
in the conduct of life:

A bad manner spoils everything, even justice and reason. The HOW
constitutes the best part of things, and the air which one gives them
gilds, modifies, and softens the most disagreeable.

There is a certain command in the manner of speaking and acting, which
makes itself felt everywhere, and which gains, in advance, consideration
and respect.

We find here the spirit that underlies French manners, in which form
counts for so much.

There is another, which suggests the delicate flavor of sentiment then
in vogue:

Wherever