e, made and retained
friends in ways so different from those of the noted heroines of the
salons. In her youth, she was beautiful and fascinating, with numerous
lovers and numberless suitors, but she grew even more famous as her
age increased; when infirm and blind, and living in a convent, she
ruled by virtue of her acknowledged authority and was still able
to cope with the greatest philosophers, the chief and dean of whom,
Voltaire, wrote the following four lines:

"Qui vous voit et qui vous entend
Perd bientot sa philosophie;
Et tout sage avec Du Deffand
Voudrait en fou passer sa vie."

[He who sees and hears you,
Soon loses his philosophy.
Wise he who with Du Deffand
Insane would pass his life.]

Living long enough to witness the reigns of three kings and one
regent, she was brilliant enough to reign over the intellectual and
social world for over fifty years, by virtue of her intellectuality,
keenness, and wit; yet, among all the great women of France, she is
truly the one who deserves genuine pity and sympathy.

The salon of Mlle. de Lespinasse, her rival, was of a different type,
being exclusively intellectual, but permitting absolute liberty of
expression of opinions. Born in 1732, at the house of a surgeon of
Lyons, she was the illegitimate daughter of the Comtesse d'Albon
and was baptized as the child of a man supposed to be named Claude
Lespinasse. From 1753 she was the constant attendant to Mme. du
Deffand, her mother's sister-in-law, for a period of ten years, until
she became completely worn out physically, morally, and mentally by
incessant care and endless all-night readings. An attempt to end her
existence with sixty grains of opium failed. Owing to the jealousy of
Mme. du Deffand, a separation ensued in 1764, when she retired some
distance from the Convent Saint-Joseph to very modest apartments,
where, by means of her friends, she was able to receive in a dignified
way. The Marechale de Luxembourg completely fitted up her apartment,
the Duc de Choiseul succeeded in getting her an annual pension from
the king, and Mme. Geoffrin allowed her three thousand francs.

The majority of the members of her salon were from that of Mme. du
Deffand, having followed Mlle. de Lespinasse after the rupture of
the two women; besides these, there were Condorcet, Helvetius, Grimm,
Marmontel, Condillac, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, and many others. As
her hours for receiving were after five o'clock,