n a likeness, seldom a favorable one.
She exacts and preserves, spite of her birth and their nonsensical
prejudices about nobility, great court and attention. This she acquires
by a thousand little arts and offices of friendship, and by a freedom
and severity which seem to be her sole end for drawing a concourse to
her. She has little taste and less knowledge, but protects artisans
and authors, and courts a few people to have the credit of serving her
dependents. In short, she is an epitome of empire, subsisting by rewards
and punishments."

Later, when he was less disinterested, perhaps, he writes to another
friend: "Mme. du Deffand hates the philosophers, so you must give them
up to her. She and Mme. Geoffrin are no friends; so if you go thither,
don't tell her of it--Indeed you would be sick of that house whither
all the pretended beaux esprits and false savants go, and where they are
very impertinent and dogmatic."

The real power of this woman may be difficult to define, but a glance
at her society reveals, at least partly, its secret. Nowhere has the
glamour of a great name more influence than at Paris. A few celebrities
form a nucleus of sufficient attraction to draw all the world, if
they are selected with taste and discrimination. After the death of
Fontenelle, d'Alembert, always witty, vivacious, and original, in spite
of the serious and exact nature of his scientific studies, was perhaps
the leading spirit of this salon. Among its constant habitues were
Helvetius, who put his selfishness into his books, reserving for his
friends the most amiable and generous of tempers; Marivaux, the novelist
and dramatist, whose vanity rivaled his genius, but who represented only
the literary spirit, and did not hesitate to ridicule his companions the
philosophers; the caustic but brilliant and accomplished Abbe Morellet,
who had "his heart in his head and his head in his heart;" the severe
and cheerful Mairan, mathematician, astronomer, physician, musical
amateur, and member of two academies, whose versatile gifts and courtly
manners gave him as cordial a welcome in the exclusive salon at the
Temple as among his philosophical friends; the gay young Marmontel, who
has left so clear and simple a picture of this famous circle and
its gentle hostess; Grimm, who combined the SAVANT and the courtier;
Saint-Lambert, the delicate and scholarly poet; Thomas, grave and
thoughtful, shining by his character and intellect, but forgetti