Part 7 (2/2)
From the beginning of the eighteenth century up to the eve of the Revolution, woman's influence continued to increase, but that influence was mainly in the direction of politics. Thus, in every period in French history, a group of women effectively moulds French thought and language, and directs intellectual activity in general.
After the death of Louis XIV., society pa.s.sed under the rule of the regent, the Duke of Orleans--the personification of gallantry and affability, of depravity which was a mania, and of licentiousness which was a disease. From this atmosphere the salon of Mme. de Lambert became a refuge to those who still cherished the ideals of the good old times of Mme. de Rambouillet; it was distinguished by its refined sentiment and polished manners, which were like those of the seventeenth century at its best.
Mme. de Lambert believed that the demands of the time were just the opposite of those of the seventeenth century: ”What a mult.i.tude of tastes nowadays--the table, play, theatre! When money and luxury are supreme, true honor loses its power. Persons seek only those houses where shameful luxury reigns.” In her own salon, none might enter who were not of the small number of the elect.
Very little is known of the life of Mme. de Lambert. She was born in 1647, and, in spite of the unfavorable surroundings of her youth and of a dissolute, extravagant, and unrefined mother, the observance of decorum and honor became the actuating principle of her life. Until her marriage (in 1666) to Henri de Lambert, Marquis de Bris en Auxerrois, she was in the midst of the grossest licentiousness and freedom of manners; when married, she entered a family the very opposite of her own.
She was a woman who believed in the power of ambitious energy. To her son she once said: ”Nothing is less becoming to a young man than a certain modesty that makes him believe that he is not capable of great things. This modesty is a languor of the soul, which prevents it from soaring and rapidly carrying itself to glory.”
At first she lived in the Hotel de Lambert (in the Ile Saint-Louis), renowned for its splendidly sculptured decorations, painted ceilings, panels, and staircases. Her famous Salon des Muses and Cabinet d'Amours were filled with the finest works of art and the most exquisite paintings. There the elite of all cla.s.ses were entertained until the death of her husband (1686), when the hotel was closed; it was not reopened until 1710.
Though left with immense wealth, her affairs were in a very complicated state. While actively employed in untangling her difficulties, she at the same time superintended the education of her son and daughter. After long and trying lawsuits, she managed to put her fortune in order and established herself at Paris, where the Duc de Nevers ceded to her, for life, a large portion of the magnificently furnished Palais Mazarin, now the National Library. On the completion of her work in remodelling this palace and furnis.h.i.+ng it with the most costly and beautiful panel paintings by Watteau and other artists, she inaugurated her Tuesday and Wednesday dinner parties.
One remarkable characteristic of her company was the age of her intimate a.s.sociates--the Marquis de Saint-Aulaire, Fontenelle, Mme.
Dacier, and her husband, Louis de Sacy, all of whom, as well as Mme.
de Lambert herself, had pa.s.sed threescore and more; but they still kept alive the cherished memories of the brilliant society of their youth. Mme. de Lambert did not personally know Mme. de Rambouillet, but she visited the latter's daughter, Julie d'Angennes, from whom she learned the customs and etiquette in vogue at the Hotel de Rambouillet.
The Wednesday dinners of Mme. de Lambert were to her intimate friends, while every Tuesday afternoon she received a general circle which indulged in general conversation and read and discussed books which were about to be published; gambling, which seemed to be the princ.i.p.al means of entertaining in those days, had no place there. Fontenelle says: ”It was, with very few exceptions, the only house which had been preserved from the epidemic of gambling--the only house where persons congregated simply for the sake of talking sensibly and with _esprit_.
Those who had their reasons for considering it bad taste that conversation was still carried on in any place, cast mean reflections, whenever they could, against the house of Mme. de Lambert.” In the evening, she received only a few select friends with whom she talked seriously. Her salon soon became the envy of those who were not admitted (and they were numerous), and was the object of many calumnies and attacks.
During this time she found leisure to write two treatises of practical morality, _Avis d'une mere a son fils_, and _Avis d'une mere a sa fille_, which appeared without her permission. The ma.n.u.scripts, lent to friends, fell into the hands of a publisher; and although the auth.o.r.ess endeavored to prevent the distribution of the works by buying up the entire editions, they were published outside of France.
The two works written to her children form an important contribution to the educational literature of the time; in them the religion of the eighteenth century is first defined.
”Above all these duties--civil and human (says the mother to her son)--is the duty you owe to the Supreme Being. Religion is a commerce established between G.o.d and man through the grace of G.o.d to man and through the duty of man to G.o.d. Elevated souls have for their G.o.d sentiments and a cult apart, which do not resemble at all those of the people; everything issues from the heart and goes to G.o.d.”
In these works, she attacked also the fad of free-thinking in vogue among the young men of the time. She was one of the few women of that age who could not separate themselves from reason and thought, even in religion; the latter was a matter for the reason and the intellect to decide, and was thus an elevated product of the mind rather than an instinct coming from the heart, or a positive revelation as it was in the seventeenth century. In this view, Madame de Lambert indicated the beginning of the later eighteenth-century spirit.
Mme. de Lambert taught her children to be satisfied with nothing but the highest attainable object. She advised her son to choose his friends from among men above him, in order to accustom himself to respectful and polite demeanor; ”with his equals he might cultivate negligence and his mind might become dull.” She desired her children to think differently from the people--”Those who think lowly and commonly, and the court is filled with such.” To their servants they were to be good and kind, for humanity and Christianity make all equal. She was the first to use those words, ”humanity” and ”equality,” which later became the bywords of everyone, and the first to teach that conscience is the best guide. ”Conscience is defined as that interior sentiment of a delicate honor which a.s.sures you that you have nothing with which to reproach yourself.”
Possibly the most important and lasting effect of Mme. de Lambert's influence resulted from the expression of her ideas on the education of young women who ”are destined to please, and are given lessons only in methods of delighting and pleasing.” She was convinced that in order to resist temptation and be normal, women must be educated, must learn to think. Her counsels to her daughter are remarkable for an unusual insight into the temperament of her s.e.x and for an extreme fear that makes her call to her aid all precautions and resources. She thus advises her daughter:
”Try to find resources within yourself--this is a revenue of certain pleasures. Do not believe that your only virtue is modesty; there are many women who know no other virtue, and who imagine that it relieves them of all duties toward society; they believe they are right in lacking all others and think themselves privileged to be proud and slanderous with impunity. You must have a gentle modesty; a good woman may have the advantages of a man's friends.h.i.+p without abandoning honesty and faithfulness to her duties. Nothing is so difficult as to please without the use of what seems like coquettishness. It is more often by their defects than by their good qualities that women please men; men seek to profit by the weaknesses of good and kind women, for whose virtues they care nothing, and they prefer to be amused by persons not very estimable than to be forced merely to admire virtuous persons.”
This is a most faithful description of the society of her time, and it was because her treatises struck home that they were severely criticised; but, nothing daunted, she carried out her plans in her own way, resorting neither to intrigue nor artifice. Many of her sayings became household maxims, such as--”It is not always faults that undo us; it is the manner of conducting ourselves after having committed them.”
Her reflections on women might be called the great plea, at the end of the seventeenth century, for woman's right to use her reason. After the severe and cruel satire of Moliere, attacking women for their innocent amus.e.m.e.nts, they gave themselves up entirely to pleasure.
”Mme. de Lambert now wrote to avenge her s.e.x and demand for it the honest and strong use of the mind; and this was done in the midst of the wild orgies of the Regency.”
Mme. de Lambert was not a rare beauty, but she possessed recompensing charms. M. Colombey a.s.serts that she became convinced of two things, about which she became highly enthusiastic: first, that woman was more reasonable than man; secondly, that M. Fontenelle, who presided over or filled the functions of president of her salon, was always in the right. He was indeed in harmony with the tone of the salon, being considered the most polished, brilliant, and distinguished member of the intellectual society of Paris, as well as one of the most talented drawing room philosophers. He made the salon of Mme. de Lambert the most sought for and celebrated, the most intellectual and moral of the period.
Mme. de Lambert has, possibly, exercised more influence upon men--and especially upon the Forty Immortals of her time--than did any woman before or after her. The Marquis d'Argenson states that ”a person was seldom received at the Academy unless first presented at her salon. It is certain that she made at least half of our actual Academicians.”
Her salon was called a _bureau d'esprit_, which was due to the fact that it was about the only social gathering point where culture and morality were the primary requisites. As she advanced in years, she became even more influential. After her death in 1733, her salon ceased to exist, but others, patterned after hers, soon sprang up; to those, her friends attached themselves--Fontenelle frequented several, Henault became the leader of that of Mme. du Deffand.
The finest resume that can be given of Mme. de Lambert, is found in the letters of the Marquis d'Argenson: ”Her works contain a complete course in the most perfect morals for the use of the world and the present time. Some affectation of the _preciosite_ is found; but, what beautiful thoughts, what delicate sentiments! How well she speaks of the duties of women, of friends.h.i.+p, of old age, of the difference between actual character and reputation!”
The salon of Mme. de Lambert forms a period of transition from the seventeenth century type in which elegance, politeness, courtesy, and morality were the first requisites, to the eighteenth century salon in which _esprit_ and wit were the essentials demanded. It retained the dignity, discipline, refinement, and sentiments of morality of the Hotel de Rambouillet; it showed, also, the first signs of pure intellectuality. The salons to follow, will exhibit decidedly different characteristics.
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