ully of science, of which he knew a great
deal. But he thought that knowledge needed a seasoning of sentiment to
make it palatable to women. In his "Pluralite des Mondes," a singular
melange of science and sentiment, which he had written some years before
and dedicated to a daughter of the gay and learned Mme. de La Sabliere,
he talks about the stars, to la belle marquise, like a lover; but his
delicate flatteries are the seasoning of serious truths. It was the
first attempt to offer science sugar-coated, and suggests the character
of this coterie, which prided itself upon a discreet mingling of
elevated thought with decorous gaiety. The world moves. Imagine a female
undergraduate of Harvard or Columbia taking her astronomy diluted with
sentiment!

President Henault, the life-long friend of Mme. du Deffand, whose light
criticism of a pure-minded woman might be regarded as rather flattering
than otherwise, says: "It was apparent that Mme. de Lambert touched upon
the time of the Hotel de Rambouillet; she was a little affected, and had
not the force to overstep the limits of the prude and the precieuse. Her
salon was the rendevous of celebrated men.... In the evening the scenery
changed as well as the actors. A more elegant world assembled at
the suppers. The Marquise took pleasure in receiving people who were
agreeable to each other. Her tone, however, did not vary, and she
preached la belle galanterie to some who went a little beyond it. I
was of the two parties; I dogmatized in the morning and sang in the
evening." The two eminent Greek Scholars, La Motte and Mme. Dacier, held
spirited discussions on the merits of Homer, which came near ending in
permanent ill-feeling, but the amiable hostess gave a dinner for them,
"they drank to the health of the poet, and all was forgotten." The war
between the partizans of the old and the new was as lively then as it
is today. "La Motte and Fontenelle prefer the moderns," said the
caustic Mme. du Deffand; "but the ancients are dead, and the moderns
are themselves." The names of Sainte-Aulaire, de Sacy, Mairan, President
Henault, and others equally scholarly and witty, suffice to indicate the
quality of the conversation, which treated lightly and gracefully of
the most serious things. The Duchesse du Maine and her clever companion,
Mlle. de Launay were often among the guests; also the beautiful and
brilliant Mme. de Caylus, a niece of Mme. de Maintenon, whom some
poetical critic has