ingly illogical. My sentiments
are virtuous, my inclinations are honest, and I am so intensely
anxious to act in all things as a gentleman should, that my friends
cannot do me a greater favour than to warn me sincerely of my faults.
Those who know me rather intimately, and who have been so kind as to
give me their counsels in this direction, are aware that I have ever
received them with all imaginable joy and with all the submission of
mind which they could possibly desire."

All this, and what remains, show that in the character of La
Rochefoucauld action had abruptly receded in favour of analysis, and
the brutality of civil war in the woods had given place to the
refinement of endless conversation by the fireside corner. The old
swashbuckler turned from the illusions of the camp to the most
exquisite of peaceful associations, and he regarded women from a
totally new point of view. It was the age of the _salons_, and La
Rochefoucauld tells us why it was that he became their sedulous
associate. He says, "When women are intelligent, I like their
conversation better than that of men. There is a certain suavity in
their talk which is lacking in that of our sex, and it seems, in
addition, that they explain themselves with more precision, and give a
more agreeable turn to what they say." In other words, La
Rochefoucauld had, by 1658, become a complete, and indeed the most
competent and highly finished example of the new social intelligence
which was to be found in France. We must dwell for one rapid moment on
what that new spirit was.

The seventeenth century in France, liberated from the weight of
internecine wars and political tyrannies, had now thrown itself with
ardour into the civilized arts, and had, in particular, developed a
love of moral disquisition. All the talk which presently became
fashionable about virtue and the higher life was a reaction against
the horrors of the Fronde. The advance of social refinement was very
rapid, and, especially in Paris, there was a determined and
intelligent movement in the direction of the amelioration of manners
and a studied elegance of life. M. Rebelliau has pointed out that it
was precisely at this moment that a great number of new words, and
among them _delicate, distinguer, moraliste, menagements, finesse_ and
many others, were accepted as part of the French language. These
served immediately to enrich the vocabulary of the men and women who
were anxious to push further an