rue mystic, she was, from early youth, filled with ardent, dreamy
vagaries, to which she gave expression in verse--poems which reflect
a pessimism which is rather the expression of her life's experiences,
and of twenty-four years of solitude after two years of happy wedded
state, than an actual depression and a discouraging philosophy of
life. Her poetry shows a vigor, depth, precision of form, and strength
of expression seldom found in poetry of French women.

One of the most conspicuous figures in the latter half of the
nineteenth century is Mme. Adam,--Juliette Lamber,--an unusual woman
in every respect. In 1879 she founded the _Nouvelle Revue_, on the
plan of the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, for which she wrote political
and literary articles which showed much talent. In politics she is a
Republican and something of a socialist, a somewhat sensational--but
modestly sensational--figure. She has been called "a necessary
continuator of George Sand." Her salon was the great centre for
all Republicans and one of the most brilliant and important of this
century. In literature her name is connected with the movement called
neo-Hellenism, the aim of which seems to have been to inspire a love
and sympathy for the art, religion, and literature of ancient and
modern Greece. In her works she shows a deep insight into Greek
life and art. Her name will always be connected with the Republican
movement in France; as a salon leader, _femme de lettres_, journalist,
and female politician, no woman is better known in France in the
nineteenth century.

A woman who might be called the rival of Mme. Adam, but whose
activity occurred much earlier in the century, was Mme. Emile de
Girardin,--Delphine Gay,--who ruled, at least for a short time, the
social and literary world of Paris at her hotel in the Rue Chaillot.
Her very early precocity, combined with her rare beauty, made her
famous. In 1836, after having written a number of poems which showed
a weak sentimentality and a quite mannered emotion, she founded the
_Courrier Francais_, for which she wrote articles on the questions of
the day--effusions which were written upon the spur of the moment and
were very unreliable. Her dramas were hardly successful, although they
were played by the great Rachel. Her present claim to fame is based
upon the brilliancy of her salon.

The future will possibly remember Mme. Alphonse Daudet more as the
wife of the great Daudet than as a writer, although, a