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 character of the noted salons, one is struck with a
certain unity that could result only from natural growth about a
nucleus of people bound together by many ties of congeniality and
friendship. Society, in its best sense, does not signify a
multitude, nor can a salon be created on commercial principles.
This spirit of commercialism, so fatal to modern social life, was
here conspicuously absent. It was not at all a question of debit
and credit, of formal invitations to be given and returned.
Personal values were regarded. The distinctions of wealth were
ignored and talent, combined with the requisite tact, was, to a
certain point, the equivalent of rank. If rivalries existed,