to the chance of
conversation, which gave rise to various subjects and led to his
serious reflection upon them. Cousin even goes so far as to say that
the _Pensees_ of Pascal would never have been published in that
form had not the _Maxims_ enjoyed such favor. Pascal often visited
Port-Royal and naturally followed the general reflective tendency
of its society. His _Discours sur les Passions de l'Amour_ possibly
originated at the salon of Mme. de Sable, because the subject of which
that work treated was one much discussed there. La Rochefoucauld was
in the habit of sending his maxims to Mme. de Sable with the message:
"As you do nothing for nothing, I ask of you a carrot soup or mutton
stew."

When La Rochefoucauld entered the society of Mme. de Sable, he had
seen much of life, was familiar with most of the adventures and
intrigues of the Fronde and the society of the time; he himself had
acted his part in all, and at the age of fifty was ready to put his
experience into a permanent form of reflection. His _Maxims_ created
a stir, through the clearness and elegance of their character, their
fine analyses of man as he was in the seventeenth century, and through
their truthfulness and general applicability to men of every country.
From all the illustrious women of the day, either he or Mme. de
Sable received letters of criticism or suggestion--eulogies and
condemnations of which he took notice in his next edition. This
shows the intense interest felt in the appearance of any new literary
production.

Cousin says that the whole literature of maxims and reflections issued
directly from the salon of a kind and good woman who had retired to a
convent with no other desire than to live over her life, to recall
her past and what she had seen and felt therein; and upon her society,
that woman impressed her own tastes, elegance, and seriousness. Her
great act of benevolence was her protection of Port-Royal. When, after
the death in 1661 of Mother Angelique Arnauld, that institution became
the object of persecution and its tenants were either imprisoned or
compelled to seek refuge in the various families of Paris, Mme. de
Sable remained faithful to its principles; she lived with her friends,
Mme. de Longueville and Mme. de Montausier, until 1669, when, with the
cooeperation of Mme. de Longueville, who exerted all her influence for
Port-Royal, she finally succeeded in bringing about its reopening. At
least, Cousin ascribes this r