like a man who sees the action of a machine but does not
know its secret springs." Mme. de Tenein advised Marmontel, before all
things, to cultivate the society of women, if he wished to succeed. It
is said that both Diderot and Thomas, two of the most brilliant thinkers
of their time, failed of the fame they merited, through their neglect
to court the favor of women. Bolingbroke, then an exile in Paris, with
a few others, formed a club of men for the discussion of literary and
political questions. While it lasted it was never mentioned by women.
It was quietly ignored. Cardinal Fleury considered it dangerous to the
State, and suppressed it. At the same time, in the salon of Mme. de
Tenein, the leaders of French thought were safely maturing the theories
which Montesquieu set forth in his "Esprit des Lois," the first open
attack on absolute monarchy, the forerunner of Rousseau, and the germ of
the Revolution. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

But the salons were far from being centers of "plain living and high
thinking." "Supper is one of the four ends of man," said Mme. du
Deffand; and it must be admitted that the great doctrine of human
equality was rather luxuriously cradled. The supreme science of the
Frenchwomen was a knowledge of men. Understanding their tastes, their
ambitions, their interests, their vanities, and their weaknesses, they
played upon this complicated human instrument with the skill of an
artist who knows how to touch the lightest note, to give the finest
shade of expression, to bring out the fullest harmony. In their efforts
to raise social life to the most perfect and symmetrical proportions,
the pleasures of sense and the delicate illusions of color were not
forgotten. They were as noted for their good cheer, for their attention
to the elegances that strike the eye, the accessories that charm the
taste, as for their intelligence, their tact, and their conversation.

But one must look for the power and the fascination of the French salons
in their essential spirit and the characteristics of the Gallic race,
rather than in any definite and tangible form. The word simply suggests
habitual and informal gatherings of men and women of intelligence and
good breeding in the drawing-room, for conversation and amusement. The
hostess who opened her house for these assemblies selected her guests
with discrimination, and those who had once gained an entree were always
welcome. In studying the ch