sensations, new diversions, nor in the fleeting expressions of
individual taste or caprice, which were often little more than
the play of small vanities, that the most potent forces in the
political as well as in the intellectual life of France were
found. It was in the coteries which attracted the best
representatives of modern thought, men and women who took the
world on a more serious side, and mingled more or less of
earnestness even in their amusements. While the Duchesse du
Maine was playing her little comedy, which began and ended in
herself, another woman, of far different type, and without rank
or riches , was scheming for her friends, and nursing the germs
of the philosophic party in one of the most notable salons of the
first half of the century. Mme. de Tencin is not an interesting
figure to contemplate from a moral standpoint. "She was born
with the most fascinating qualities and the most abominable
defects that God ever gave to one of his creatures," said Mme. du
Deffand, who was far from being able to pose, herself, as a model
of virtue or decorum. But sin has its degrees, and the woman who
errs within the limits of conventionality considers herself
entitled to sit in judgment upon her sister who wanders outside
of the fold. Measured even by the complaisant standards of her
own time, there can be but one verdict upon the character of Mme.
de Tencin, though it is to be hoped that the scandal-loving
chroniclers have painted her more darkly than she deserved. But
whatever her faults may have been, her talent and her influence
were unquestioned. She posed in turn as a saint, an intrigante,
and a femme d'esprit, with marked success in every one of these
roles. But it was not a comedy she was playing for the amusement
of the hour. Beneath the velvet softness of her manner there was
a definite aim, an inflexible purpose. With the tact and