de Scudery is especially interesting to us as marking a transition
point in the history of women; as the author of the first romances of
any note written by her sex; as a moral teacher in an age of laxity;
and as a woman who combined high aspirations, fine ideals, and versatile
talents with a pure and unselfish character. She aimed at universal
accomplishments from the distillation of a perfume to the writing of a
novel, from the preparation of a rare dish to fine conversation,
from playing the lute to the dissection of the human heart. In this
versatility she has been likened to Mme. de Genlis, whom she resembled
also in her moral teaching and her factitious sensibility. She was,
however, more genuine, more amiable, and far superior in true elevation
of character. She was full of theories and loved to air them, hence the
people who move across the pages of her novels are often lost in a cloud
of speculation. But she gave a fresh impulse to literature, adding a
fine quality of grace, tenderness, and pure though often exaggerated
sentiment. Mme. de La Fayette, who had more clearness of mind as well as
a finer artistic sense, gave a better form to the novel and pruned it
of superfluous matter. The sentiment which casts so soft and delicate
a coloring over her romances was more subtle and refined. It may be
questioned, however, if she wrote so much that has been incorporated in
the thought of her time.

CHAPTER IV. LA GRANDE MADEMOISELLE

_Her Character--Her Heroic Part in the Fronde--Her Exile--Literary
Diversions of her Salon--A Romantic Episode_

There are certain women preeminently distinguished by diversity of
gifts, who fail to leave behind them a fame at all commensurate with
their promise. It may be from a lack of unity, resulting from a series
of fragmentary efforts, no one of which is of surpassing excellence;
it may be that the impression of power they give is quite beyond any
practical manifestation of it; or it may be that talents in themselves
remarkable are cast into the shade by some exceptional brilliancy of
position. The success of life is measured by the harmony between its
ideals and its attainments. It is the symmetry of the temple that gives
the final word, not the breadth of its foundations nor the wealth of its
material.

It was this lack of harmony and fine proportion which marred the
career of a woman who played a very conspicuous part in the social and
political life of her time, and wh