her friends take the same tone. They make scientific
experiments, discuss Calvinism, read the ancient moralists, and
indulge in dissertations upon a great variety of topics. Mme. de
Bregy, poet, dame d'honneur and femme d'esprit, who amused the
little court of Mademoiselle with so many discreetly flattering
pen-portraits, has left two badly written and curiously spelled
notes upon the merits of Socrates and Epictetus, which throw a
ray of light upon the tastes of this aristocratic and rather
speculative circle. Mme. de Sable writes an essay upon the
education of children, which is very much talked about, also a
characteristic paper upon friendship. The latter is little more
than a series of detached sentences, but it indicates the drift
of her thought, and might have served as an antidote to the
selfish philosophy of La Rochefoucauld. It calls out an
appreciative letter from d'Andilly, who, in his anchorite's cell,
continues to follow the sayings and doings of his friends in the
little salon at Port Royal.

"Friendship," she writes, "is a kind of virtue which can only be
founded upon the esteem of people whom one loves--that is to
say, upon qualities of the soul, such as fidelity, generosity,
discretion, and upon fine qualities of mind."

After insisting that it must be reciprocal, disinterested, and
based upon virtue, she continues: "One ought not to give the name
of friendship to natural inclinations because they do not depend
upon our will or our choice; and, though they render our
friendships more agreeable, they should not be the foundation of
them. The union which is founded upon the same pleasures and the
same occupations does not deserve the name of friendship because