tle variance and no decadence; in some respects, the
last may be said to have approached nearest to perfection. "In her,
the turn of critical and caustic severity was exempt from rigidity
and was accompanied by every charm and pleasingness in her person. She
often judged [a person] by [his] ability at repartee, which she tested
by embarrassing questions across the table, judging [the person] by
the reply. She herself was never at a loss for an answer: when shown
two portraits--one of Moliere and one of La Fontaine--and asked which
was the greater, she answered: 'That one,' pointing to La Fontaine,
'is more perfect in a _genre_ less perfect.'"

By the Goncourt brothers, her salon has been given its merited credit:
"The most elegant salon was that of the Marechale de Luxembourg, one
of the most original women of the time. She showed an originality in
her judgments, she was authority in usage, a genius in taste. About
her were pleasure, interest, novelty, letters; here was formed the
true elegance of the eighteenth century--a society that held sway over
Europe until 1789. Here was formed the greatest institution of
the time, the only one that survived till the Revolution, that
preserved--in the discredit of all moral laws--the authority of one
law, _la parfaite bonne compagnie_, whose aim was a social one--to
distinguish itself from bad company, vulgar and provincial society,
by the perfection of the means of pleasing, by the delicacy of
friendship, by the art of considerations, complaisances, of _savoir
vivre_, by all possible researches and refinements of _esprit_. It
fixed everything--usages, etiquette, tone of conversation; it
taught how to praise without bombast and insipidness, to reply to
a compliment without disdaining or accepting it, to bring others to
value without appearing to protect them; it prevented all slander.
If it did not impart modesty, goodness, indulgence, nobleness of
sentiment, it at least imposed the forms, exacting the appearances
and showing the images of them. It was the guardian of urbanity and
maintained all the laws that are derived from taste. It represented
the religion of honor; it judged, and when it condemned a man he was
socially-ruined."

A type of what may be called the social mistress of the nobility--the
personification of good taste, elegance and propriety such as it
should be--was the Comtesse de Boufflers, mistress of the Prince de
Conti, intimate friend of Hume, Rousseau, and