FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180  
181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   >>   >|  
as successful in this, she would say to her friends: _Soyons aimables_ [Let us be kind]. She spent freely of her immense fortune constantly seeking and aiding the poor. Persons who refused to accept her charity found little favor with her; Rousseau was one of these. It was her habit to go frequently to see friends, merely to ascertain their wants and to satisfy them. The Abbe Morellet, Thomas, D'Alembert, and Mlle. de Lespinasse (the only lady admitted to her Wednesdays) were given liberal pensions. Upon each New Year's Day, in commemoration of Mme. de Tencin, she sent each Wednesday guest a velvet cap. Her motto was: _Donner et pardonner_ [Give and forgive]. Stanislas, King of Poland, her _protege_, whom she had rescued from the debtor's prison in Paris, and to whom she had shown many favors, upon being elected King of Poland in 1764, said to her: _Maman, votre fils est roi_ [Mamma, your son is king]. Two years later, when she paid him a visit, the leading members of the Polish nobility met her on the road, and the king had a special residence prepared for her. As she passed through Vienna, Joseph II. received her, and the Empress Maria entertained her at dinner. Upon her return to Paris, after this triumphal tour through Europe, the members of the world of literature and art, and even the ministers and the nobility, flocked to see her; this demonstration was the more remarkable from the fact that she wielded no political influence, her only desire and pleasure seeming to lie in aiding her friends. Mme. Geoffrin was too practical and had too much good common sense to be vain. The majority of men were influenced by and favored her, and, which seemed strange, she had few enemies among her own sex. Mme. Necker said: "The old age of Mme. Geoffrin is like that of old trees, whose age we know by the space they cover and the quantity of roots they spread. She has seen all the illustrious men of the century; she has discovered, with sagacity, their peculiarities and their defects. She judges them by their conduct, never by their talents." In her best years, she was intimately associated with the Encyclopaedists, to whom she paid over one hundred thousand francs for the publication of their work. Of all the great women of that century, she was the closest friend of the philosophers and free-thinkers, being called _La Fontenelle des Femmes_. She was always ready with an answer; one day a friend pointed out to her the house
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180  
181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
friends
 

Geoffrin

 

Poland

 
century
 

aiding

 

members

 

nobility

 

friend

 

influenced

 

favored


common

 
majority
 

desire

 
literature
 
ministers
 

flocked

 

Europe

 

return

 

dinner

 

triumphal


demonstration

 

pleasure

 

practical

 

strange

 

influence

 
remarkable
 

wielded

 

political

 

closest

 

philosophers


publication

 

Encyclopaedists

 
hundred
 

thousand

 

francs

 

thinkers

 

called

 

answer

 

pointed

 

Fontenelle


Femmes
 
intimately
 

quantity

 

enemies

 

Necker

 
spread
 

conduct

 
talents
 
judges
 

defects