great
affability, and a talent for quickly and accurately reading character;
and these gifts were stepping-stones to popularity.

She wrote incessantly, on all things, essaying every style, every
subject. "She has discoursed for the education of princes and of
lackeys; prepared maxims for the throne and precepts for the pantry;
you might say she possessed the gift of universality. She was gifted
with a singular confidence in her own abilities, infinite curiosity,
untiring industry, and never-ending and inexhaustible energy. She
wrote nearly as much as Voltaire, and barely excelled him in the
amount of unreadable work, which, if printed, would fill over one
hundred volumes."

"Let us remember," says Mr. Dobson, "her indefatigable industry and
untiring energy, her kindness to her relatives and admirers, her
courage and patience when in exile and poverty, her great talent,
perseverance, and rare facility." In protesting vigorously against the
universal neglect of physical development, against the absence of the
gymnasium and the lack of practical knowledge in the education of
her time, in advocating the study of modern languages as a means of
culture and discipline, in applying to her pupils the principles of
the modern experimental and observational education, Mme. de Genlis
will retain a place as one of the great female educators--as a woman
pedagogue, _par excellence_, of the eighteenth century.

A great number of minor salons existed, which were partly literary,
partly social. From about 1750 to 1780 the amusements varied
constantly, from all-day parties in the country to cafes served by
the great women themselves, from playing proverbs to playing synonyms,
from impromptu compositions to questionable stories, from laughter to
tears, from Blind-man's-buff to Lotto. Some of the proverbs were quite
ingenious and required elaborate preparations; for example, at one
place Mme. de Lauzun dances with M. de Belgunce, in the simplest kind
of a costume, which represented the proverb: _Bonne renommee vaut
mieux que ceinture doree_ [A good name is rather to be chosen than
great riches]. Mme. de Marigny danced with M. de Saint-Julien as a
negro, passing her handkerchief over her face in the various figures
of the dance, meaning _A laver la tete d'un More on perd sa lessive_
[To wash a blackamoor white].

Among the social salons, the finest was the Temple of the Prince de
Conti and his mistress, the Countess de Boufflers. It wa