ion had arisen, with new ideals and a new spirit that made for
itself other forms or greatly modified the old ones. It was not led by
philosophers and beaux esprits who evolved theories and turned them over
as an intellectual diversion, but by men of action, ready to test
these theories and force them to their logical conclusions. Mirabeau,
Vergniaud, and Robespierre had succeeded Voltaire, Diderot, and
d'Alembert. Impelled towards one end, by vanity, ambition, love of
glory, or genuine conviction, these men and their colleagues turned
the salon, which had so long been the school of public opinion, into an
engine of revolution. The exquisite flower of the eighteenth century had
blossomed, matured, and fallen. Perhaps it was followed by a plant of
sturdier growth, but the rare quality of its beauty was not repeated.
The time was past when the gentle touch of women could temper the
violence of clashing opinions, or subject the discussion of vital
questions to the inflexible laws of taste. No tactful hostess could hold
in leading strings these fiery spirits. The voices that had charmed the
old generation were silent. Of the women who had made the social life of
the century so powerful and so famous, many were quietly asleep before
the storm broke; many were languishing in prison cells, with no outlook
but the scaffold; some were pining in the loneliness of exile; and a few
were buried in a seclusion which was their only safeguard.

But nature has always in reserve fresh types that come to the surface in
a great crisis. The women who made themselves felt and heard above the
din of revolution, though by no means deficient in the graces, were
mainly distinguished for quite other qualities than those which shine in
a drawing room or lead a coterie. They were either women of rare genius
and the courage of their convictions, or women trained in the stern
school of a bitter experience, who found their true milieu in the midst
of stirring events. The names of Mme. de Stael, Mme. Roland, and Mme.
de Condorcet readily suggest themselves as the most conspicuous
representatives of this stormy period. With different gifts and in
different measure, each played a prominent role in the brief drama to
which they lent the inspiration of their genius and their sympathy,
until they were forced to turn back with horror from that carnival of
savage passions which they had unconsciously helped to let loose upon
the world.

The salon of the youn