Part 9 (2/2)
The world is a malicious deceiver which never means what it says; and the majority of men who say such things to young girls, do it hoping to find some means of ruining them.”
Her most intense desire seemed to be to please, and be esteemed--to receive the _honneur du monde_, which appeared to be her sole motive for living. When in power, she did not use her influence as the intriguing women of the epoch would have done, because she did not possess their qualities--taste, breadth of vision, and selfish ambitions. Her objects in life were the reform of a wicked court, the extirpation of heresy, the elevation of men of genius, and the improvement of the society and religion of France. After the death of the king (in 1715), she retired to Saint-Cyr, and spent the remainder of her life in acts of charity and devotional exercises.
After the king's death she dismissed all her servants and disposed of her carriages as well, ”unable to reconcile herself to feeding horses while so many young girls were in need,” as she said. For almost four years she peacefully and happily lived in a very modest apartment. She seldom went out and then only to the village to visit the sick and the poor. On June 10, 1717, when she was eighty-one years old, Peter the Great went to Saint-Cyr for the purpose of seeing and talking to the greatest woman of France. He found her confined to her bed; the chamber being but dimly lighted, he thrust aside the curtain in order to examine the features of the woman who had ruled the destinies of France for so many years. The Czar talked to her for some time, and when he asked Madame de Maintenon from what she was suffering, she replied: ”From great old age.” She died on August 15, 1719, and was buried in the choir of the church of Saint-Cyr, where a modest slab of marble indicated the spot where her body reposed until, in 1794, when the church was being transformed into hospital wards, ”the workmen opened the vault, and took out the body and dragged it into the court with dreadful yells and threw it, stripped and mutilated, into a hole in the cemetery.”
The greatest work of Mme. de Maintenon was the founding of the Seminary of Saint-Cyr, which the king granted to her about the time of their marriage and of his illness; it was probably intended as the penance of a sick man who wished to make reparation for the wrongs inflicted upon some of the young girls of the n.o.bility, and as a wedding gift to Mme. de Maintenon. There, aided by nuns, she cared for and educated two hundred and fifty pupils, dowerless daughters of impoverished n.o.bles. It was ”the veritable offspring of her who was never a daughter, a wife, nor a mother.” There she was happy and content; there she recalled her own youth when she was poor and forsaken; there she found respite from the turmoils and agitations of Versailles; there she was supreme; there she governed absolutely and was truly loved.
For thirty years she was queen at Saint-Cyr, visiting it every other day and teaching the young girls for whom it was a protection against the world. Since childhood, she had been so accustomed to serve herself, to wait upon others and to care for the smallest details of the management of the household, that she introduced this spirit into society and at Saint-Cyr, where she managed every detail, from the linen to the provisions; this showed a reasonable and well-balanced mind, but not any high order of intelligence.
Of the young girls in her charge, she desired to make model women, characterized by simplicity and piety; they were to be free from morbid curiosity of mind, were to practise absolute self-denial and to devote their lives to a practical labor. Her advice was: ”Be reasonable or you will be unhappy; if you are haughty, you will be reminded of your misery, but if you are humble, people will recall your birth.... Commence by making yourself loved, without which you will never succeed. Is it not true that, had you not loved me or had you had an aversion for me, you would not have accepted, with such good grace, the counsels that I have given you? This is absolutely certain--the most beautiful things when taught by persons who displease us, do not impress but rather harden us.”
A counsel that strikes home forcibly to-day, one which strongly attacks the modern fad of neglecting home for church, is expressed well in one of her letters: ”Your piety will not be right if, when married, you abandon your husband, your children and your servants, to go to the churches at times when you are not obliged to go there. When a young girl says that a woman would do better properly to raise her children and instruct her servants, than to spend her morning in church, one can accommodate one's self to such religion, which she will cause to be loved and respected.”
At the hour of leisure, she gave the girls those familiar talks which were antic.i.p.ated by them with so much pleasure, and extracts from which are still cherished by the young women of France. She believed that the aim of instruction for young girls should be to educate them to be Christian women with well-balanced and logical minds. With her varied experience of the ups and downs of life, she gradually came to the conclusion that, after all, there is nothing in the world so good as sound common sense, but one that is not enamored of itself, which obeys established laws and knows its own limits. Her s.e.x is intended to obey, thus her reason was a Christian reason.
”You can be truly reasonable only in proportion as you are subservient to G.o.d.... Never tell children fantastic stories, nor permit them to believe them; give them things for what they are worth. Never tell them stories of which, when they grow to independent reasoning, you must disillusion them. You must talk to a girl of seven as seriously and with as much reason as to a young lady of twenty. You must take part in the pleasures of children, but never accommodate them with a childish language or with foolish or puerile ways. You can never be too reasonable or too sane. Religion, reason, and truth are always good.”
To appreciate the importance of Mme. de Maintenon's position and the revolutionary effect which her att.i.tude produced upon the customs of the time, one must remember with what she had to contend. Hers was a period of pa.s.sion and adventure--a period which was followed by sorrow and disaster. The novels of Mlle. de Scudery, which were at the height of their popularity, had over-refined the sentiments; the _chevaleresque_ heroes and picturesque heroines turned the heads of young girls, who dreamed of an ideal and perfect love; their one longing was for the romantic--for the enchantments and delights of life. In this stilted and amorous atmosphere, Mme. de Maintenon preserved her poise and fought vigorously against the fads of the day.
The young girls under her care were taught to love just as they were taught to do other things--with reason. Also, she guarded against the weaknesses of nature and the flesh. ”Than Mme. de Maintenon, no one ever better knew the evils of the world without having fallen prey to them,” says Sainte-Beuve; ”and no one ever satisfied and disgusted the world more, while charming it at the same time.”
Mme. de Maintenon's ideal methods of education were not immediately effective; there were many periods of hards.h.i.+p, apprehension, and doubt. Thus, when Racine's _Esther_ (written at the request of Mme. de Maintenon, to be presented by the pupils at Saint-Cyr) was performed, there sprang up a taste for poetry, writing, and literature of all kinds. The acting turned the girls' thoughts into other channels and threatened to counteract the teachings of simplicity and reason; no one ever showed more genuine good sense, wholesomeness of mind, and breadth of view, than were displayed by Mme. de Maintenon in dealing with these disheartening drawbacks.
In endeavoring to impress upon those young minds the correct use of language and the proper style of writing, she wrote for them models of letters which showed simplicity, precision, truth, facility, and wonderful clearness; and these were imitated by them in their replies to her.
She wished, above all, to make them realize that her experience with that social and court life, for which they longed, was one of disappointment: that was a world apart, in which amusing and being amused was the one occupation. She had pa.s.sed wearily through that period of life, and sought repose, truth, tranquillity, and religious resignation; to make those young spirits feel the fallacy of such a mode of existence was her earnest desire, and her efforts in that direction were characterized by a zeal, energy, and persistence which were productive of wonderful results. That was one phase of her greatness and influence.
But Mme. de Maintenon was somewhat too severe, too narrow, too strict,--one might say, too ascetic,--in her teaching. There was too little of that which, in this world, cheers, invigorates, and enlivens. Her instruction was all reason, without relieving features; it lacked what Sainte-Beuve calls the _don des larmes_ (gift of tears). Hers was a n.o.ble, just, courageous, and delicate judgment; but it was without the softening qualities of the truly feminine, which calls for tears and affection, tenderness and sympathy.
She remains in educational affairs the greatest woman of the seventeenth century, if not of all her countrywomen. M. f.a.guet says: ”This widow of Scarron, who was nearly Queen of France, was born minister of public instruction.” She powerfully upheld the cause of morality, was a liberal patroness of education and learning, and all aspiring geniuses were encouraged and financially aided by her. It was she who impressed upon Louis XIV. the truth of the existence of a G.o.d to whom he was accountable for his acts--a teaching which contributed no little to the general purification of morals at court.
The writings of Mme. de Maintenon occupy a very high place in the history of French literature; in fact, her letters have often been compared with those of Mme. de Sevigne, although, unlike the latter, she never wrote merely to please, but to instruct, to convert, and to console. In her works there was no pretension to literary style; they were sermons on morals, characterized by discretion and simplicity, dignity and persuasiveness, seriousness and earnestness; Napoleon placed her letters above those of Mme. de Sevigne. M. Saint-Amand says of her writings: ”More reflection than vivacity, more wisdom than pa.s.sion, more gravity than charm, more authority than grace, more solidity than brilliancy--such are the characteristics of a correspondence which might justify the expression, the style is the woman.”
He gives, also, the following discriminating comparison between the two writers: ”Enjoyment, Gallic animation, good-tempered gayety, fall to the lot of Mme. de Sevigne; what marks Mme. de Maintenon is experience, reason, profundity. The one laughs from ear to ear--the other barely smiles. The one has pleasant illusions about everything, admiration which borders on _navete_, ecstasies when in the presence of the royal sun: the other never permits herself to be fascinated by either the king or the court, by men, women, or things. She has seen human grandeur too close at hand not to understand its nothingness, and her conclusions bear the imprint of a profound sadness. At times Mme. de Sevigne, also, has attacks of melancholy, but the cloud pa.s.ses quickly and she is again in the suns.h.i.+ne. Gayety--frank, communicative, radiant gayety--is the basis of the character of this woman who is more witty, seductive, and amusing than is any other.
Mme. de Sevigne s.h.i.+nes by imagination--Mme. de Maintenon by judgment.
The one permits herself to be dazzled, intoxicated--the other always preserves her indifference. The one exaggerates the splendors of the court--the other sees them as they are. The one is more of a woman--the other more of a saint.”
Mme. de Maintenon may be called ”a woman of fate,” She was never daughter, mother, or wife; as a child, she was not loved by her mother, and her father was worthless; married to two men, both aged beyond their years, she was, indeed, but an instrument of fate.
Truthful, candid, and discreet she was entirely free from all morbid tendencies, and was modest and chaste from inclination as well as from principle. Though outwardly cold, proud, and reserved, yet in her deportment toward those who were fortunate enough to possess her esteem, she was kind--even loving. While not intelligent to a remarkable degree, she was prudent, circ.u.mspect, and shrewd, never losing her self-control. When once interested, and convinced as to the proper course, she displayed marvellous strength of will, sagacity, and personal force. Beautiful and witty, she easily adapted herself to any position in which she might be placed; though intolerant and narrow in her religious views, she was otherwise gentle, charitable, and unselfish. Therefore, it is evident that she possessed, to a greater degree than did any other woman of her time, unusual as well as desirable qualities--qualities that made her powerful and incomparable.
CHAPTER VI
MME. DE SeVIGNe, MME. DE LA FAYETTE, MME. DACIER, MME. DE CAYLUS
The seventeenth century was, in French history, the greatest century from the standpoint of literary perfection, the sixteenth century the richest in naissant ideas, and the eighteenth the greatest in the way of developing and formulating those ideas; and each century produced great women who were in perfect harmony with and expressed the ideals of each period of civilization.
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