k in her that flower of innocence which is the young girl's grace.
The charming puritan does not commit great faults, but she has
astonishing licenses of thought and speech. For her, Louvet's
_Faublas_ is "one of those charming romances known to persons of taste,
in which the graces of imagination ally themselves to the tone of
philosophy." Is not this woman, who begins her life like a saint and
ends it as a pupil of Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the symbol of
that troubled eighteenth century which opened in fidelity to religious
faith and closed in the depths of the abyss of incredulity? The
ravages caused by bad reading in the soul of this young girl explain
the catastrophes of the entire century.

From the time when she replaced the Gospels by the _Contrat Social_ and
the _Imitation of Jesus Christ_ by the _Nouvelle Heloise_, there was no
longer anything simple or natural remaining in the young philosopher.
All her thoughts and actions became declamatory. There was something
theatrical in her attitudes and gestures, and even in the sound of her
voice. Her speech was rhythmical, cadenced, marked {55} by a special
accent. Even her private letters often resemble the amplifications of
rhetoric rather than the effusions of friendship. One might say that
their author had a presentiment that they would be printed. She wrote
to Mademoiselle Sophie Cannet, January 3, 1776: "In any case, burn
nothing. Though my letters were one day to be read by all the world, I
would not hide the only monuments of my weakness, and my sentiments."
Monuments of weakness--is not the expression worthy of the bombast of
the time?

Not finding love, Mademoiselle Philipon married philosophically. Her
union bears a striking imitation to that of Heloise with M. de Volmar.
"Looking her destiny peacefully and tenderly in the face, greatly moved
but not infatuated," she united herself to a man whom she esteemed but
did not love. This was Roland de la Platiere, who was descended from
an ancient and very honorable middle class family. Though not rich, he
was at least comfortably well off. "Well educated, honest, simple in
his tastes and manners, he fulfilled his duties as inspector of
manufactures in a notable way. The marriage was celebrated on February
4, 1780. Roland was forty-six years old, while his wife was not yet
twenty-six. Thin, bald, careless in his dress, the husband was not at
all an ideal person. It had taken him five