on against the
general social state immediately set in, even the brusque warriors
acquiring a refinement of speech and manners; and as conversation
developed and became a power, the great lords began to respect men
of letters and to cultivate their society. Anyone who possessed good
manners, vivacity, and wit was admitted to the salon, where a new and
more elevating sociability was the aspiration.

Mme. de Rambouillet was very particular in the choice of friends, and
they were always sincere and devoted, knowing her to be undesirous of
political favors and incapable of stooping to intrigue. Even Richelieu
could not, as compensation to him for a favor to her husband, induce
her to act as spy on some of the frequenters of her salon.

While not a woman of remarkable beauty, she was the personification
of reason and virtue; her unassuming frankness, exquisite tact, and
exceptional reserve discouraged all advances on the part of those
gallants who frequented every mansion and were always prepared to lay
siege to the heart of any fair woman. Her wide culture, versatility,
modesty, goodness, fidelity, and disinterestedness caused her to be
universally sought. Mlle. de Scudery, in her novel _Cyrus_, leaves a
fine portrait of her:

"The spirit and soul of this marvellous person surpass by far her
beauty: the first has no limits in its extent and the other has no
equal in its generosity, goodness, justice, and purity. The intellect
of Cleomire (Mme. de Rambouillet) is not like that of those whose
minds have no brilliancy except that which nature has given them, for
she has cultivated it carefully, and I think I can say that there are
no _belles connaissances_ that she has not acquired. She knows various
languages, and is ignorant of hardly anything that is worth knowing;
but she knows it all without making a display of knowing it; and one
would say, in hearing her talk, 'she is so modest that she speaks
admirably of things, through simple common sense only'; on the
contrary, she is versed in all things; the most advanced sciences
are not beyond her, and she is perfectly acquainted with the most
difficult arts. Never has any person possessed such a delicate
knowledge as hers of fine works of prose and poetry; she judges them,
however, with wonderful moderation, never abandoning _la bienseance_
(the seemliness) of her sex, though she is far above it. In the whole
court, there is not a person with any spirit and virtue that does