not impress but rather harden us."

A counsel that strikes home forcibly to-day, one which strongly
attacks the modern fad of neglecting home for church, is expressed
well in one of her letters: "Your piety will not be right if, when
married, you abandon your husband, your children and your servants, to
go to the churches at times when you are not obliged to go there. When
a young girl says that a woman would do better properly to raise
her children and instruct her servants, than to spend her morning in
church, one can accommodate one's self to such religion, which she
will cause to be loved and respected."

At the hour of leisure, she gave the girls those familiar talks which
were anticipated by them with so much pleasure, and extracts from
which are still cherished by the young women of France. She believed
that the aim of instruction for young girls should be to educate them
to be Christian women with well-balanced and logical minds. With her
varied experience of the ups and downs of life, she gradually came to
the conclusion that, after all, there is nothing in the world so good
as sound common sense, but one that is not enamored of itself, which
obeys established laws and knows its own limits. Her sex is intended
to obey, thus her reason was a Christian reason.

"You can be truly reasonable only in proportion as you are subservient
to God.... Never tell children fantastic stories, nor permit them to
believe them; give them things for what they are worth. Never tell
them stories of which, when they grow to independent reasoning, you
must disillusion them. You must talk to a girl of seven as seriously
and with as much reason as to a young lady of twenty. You must take
part in the pleasures of children, but never accommodate them with a
childish language or with foolish or puerile ways. You can never be
too reasonable or too sane. Religion, reason, and truth are always
good."

To appreciate the importance of Mme. de Maintenon's position and the
revolutionary effect which her attitude produced upon the customs of
the time, one must remember with what she had to contend. Hers was a
period of passion and adventure--a period which was followed by sorrow
and disaster. The novels of Mlle. de Scudery, which were at the
height of their popularity, had over-refined the sentiments; the
_chevaleresque_ heroes and picturesque heroines turned the heads
of young girls, who dreamed of an ideal and perfect love; their one
long