, which sometimes proved oppressive to a
daughter who, though not unloving, loved with a temperate heart;
faithful to friends, loyal to those who had fallen into misfortune,
but neither sentimental nor romantic, nor disposed to the
generosities of a universal humanity; a woman of spirit, energy, and
good sense; capable of serious reflection, though not of profound
thought; endowed with an exquisite sense of the power of words, and,
indeed, the creator of a literary style. While her interests were
in the main of a mundane kind, she was in sympathy with Port-Royal,
admired the writings of Pascal, and deeply reverenced Nicole.
Domestic affairs, business (concern for her children having involved
her in financial troubles), the aristocratic life of Paris and
Versailles, literature, the pleasures and tedium of the country, the
dulness or gaiety of a health-resort, the rise and fall of those in
power, the petty intrigues and spites and follies of the day--these,
and much besides, enter into Mme. de Sevigne's records, records made
upon the moment, with all the animation of an immediate impression,
but remaining with us as one of the chief documents for the social
history of the second half of the seventeenth century. In April 1696
Mme. de Sevigne died.

Beside the letters addressed to her daughter are others--far fewer
in number--to her cousin Bussy-Rabutin, to her cousin Mme. de
Coulanges, to Pomponne, and other correspondents. In Bussy's
_Memoires et Correspondance_ (1696-97) first appeared certain of her
letters; a collection, very defective and inaccurate, was published
in 1726; eight years later the first portion of an authorised text
was issued under the sanction of the writer's grand-daughter;
gradually the material was recovered, until it became of vast extent;
even since the appearance of the edition among the _Grands Ecrivains
de la France_ two volumes of _Lettres inedites_ have been published.

Among the other letter-writers of the period, perhaps the most
distinguished were Mme. de Sevigne's old and attached friend Mme.
de la Fayette, and the woman of supreme authority with the King, Mme.
de Maintenon. A just view of Mme. de Maintenon's character has been
long obscured by the letters forged under her name by La Beaumelle,
and by the bitter hostility of Saint-Simon. On a basis of ardour and
sensibility she built up a character of unalterable reason and good
sense. Her letters are not creations of genius, unless pra