as in most novels.
This achievement on her part has been too little imitated, but it,
alone, will preserve the name of Mme. de La Fayette.

Mme. de Motteville is deserving of mention among the important
literary women of the seventeenth century. She is regarded as one
of the best women writers in French literature, and her memoirs are
considered authority on the history of the Fronde and of Anne of
Austria. The poetry of Mme. des Houlieres was for a long time much
in vogue; to-day, however, it is not read. The memoirs of Mlle. de
Montpensier are more occupied with herself than with events of the
time or the numerous princes who tarried about her as longing lovers.
Guizot says: "She was so impassioned and haughty, with her head
so full of her own greatness, that she did not marry in her youth,
thinking no one worthy of her except the king and the emperor, and
they had no fancy for her." The following portrait of her was sketched
by herself:

"I am tall, neither fat nor thin, of a very fine and easy figure.
I have a good mien, arms and hands not beautiful, but a beautiful
skin--and throat, too. I have a straight leg and a well-shaped foot;
my hair is light and of a beautiful auburn; my face is long, its
contour is handsome, nose large and aquiline; mouth neither large
nor small, but chiselled and with a very pleasing expression; lips
vermilion, not fine, but not frightful, either; my eyes are blue,
neither large nor small, but sparkling, soft, and proud like my mien.
I talk a great deal, without saying silly things or using bad words. I
am a very vicious enemy, being very choleric and passionate, and that,
added to my birth, may well make my enemies tremble; but I have, also,
a noble and kindly soul. I am incapable of any base and black deed;
and so I am more disposed to mercy than to justice. I am melancholic,
and fond of reading good and solid books; trifles bore me--except
verses, and them I like, of whatever sort they may be; and undoubtedly
I am as good a judge of such things as if I were a scholar."

Possibly the greatest female scholar that France ever produced was
Mme. Dacier, a truly learned woman and one of whom French women are
proud; during her last years she enjoyed the reputation of being one
of the foremost scholars of all Europe. It was Mme. de Lambert who
wrote of her:

"I esteem Mme. Dacier infinitely. Our sex owes her much; she has
protested against the common error which condemns us to ignorance.