CHAPTER XII. MADAME GEOFFRIN AND THE PHILOSOPHERS
Cradles of the New Philosophy--Noted Salons of this Period--
Character of Mme. Geoffrin--Her Practical Education--Anecdotes
of her Husband--Composition of her Salon--Its Insidious
Influence--Her Journey to Warsaw--Her Death

During the latter half of the eighteenth century the center of
social life was no longer the court, but the salons. They had
multiplied indefinitely, and, representing every shade of taste
and thought, had reached the climax of their power as schools of
public opinion, as well as their highest perfection in the arts
and amenities of a brilliant and complex society. There was a
slight reaction from the reckless vices and follies of the
regency. If morals were not much better, manners were a trifle
more decorous. Though the great world did not take the tone of
stately elegance and rigid propriety which it had assumed under
the rule of Mme. de Maintenon, it was superficially polished, and
a note of thoughtfulness was added. Affairs in France had taken
too serious an aspect to be ignored, and the theories of the
philosophers were among the staple topics of conversation;
indeed, it was the great vogue of the philosophers that gave many
of the most noted social centers their prestige and their fame.
It is not the salons of the high nobility that suggest themselves
as the typical ones of this age. It is those which were animated
by the habitual presence of the radical leaders of French
thought. Economic questions and the rights of man were discussed
as earnestly in these brilliant coteries as matters of faith and
sentiment, of etiquette and morals, had been a hundred years
before. Such subjects were forced upon them by the inexorable
logic of events; and fashion, which must needs adapt itself in