conventional
restraint, and the mental metal of those choice spirits clashed and
evolved brilliant sparks, bright rays of light, the luster of which
still glitters after a lapse of more than two centuries.

Personally, Ninon was an enemy of pedantry in every form, demanding of
her followers originality at all times on penalty of banishment from
her circle. The great writer, Mynard, once related with tears in his
eyes that his daughter, who afterward became the Countess de
Feuquieres, had no memory. Whereat Ninon laughed him out of his
sorrow:

"You are too happy in having a daughter who has no memory; she will
not be able to make citations."

That her society was sought by very good men is evidenced by the grave
theologians who found her companionship pleasant, perhaps salutary. A
celebrated Jesuit who did not scruple to find entertainment in her
social circle, undertook to combat her philosophy and show her the
truth from his point of view, but she came so near converting him to
her tenets that he abandoned the contest remarking with a laugh:

"Well, well, Mademoiselle, while waiting to be convinced that you are
in error, offer up to God your unbelief." Rousseau has converted this
incident into an epigram.

The grave and learned clergy of Port Royal also undertook the labor of
converting her, but their labor was in vain.

"You know," she told Fontenelle, "what use I make of my body? Well,
then, it would be easier for me to obtain a good price for my soul,
for the Jansenists and Molinists are engaged in a competition of
bidding for it."

She was not bigoted in the least, as the following incident will show:
One of her friends refused to send for a priest when in extremis, but
Ninon brought one to his bedside, and as the clergyman, knowing the
scepticism of the dying sinner, hesitated to exercise his functions,
she encouraged him to do his duty:

"Do your duty, sir," she said, "I assure you that although our friend
can argue, he knows no more about the truth than you and I."

The key to Mademoiselle de l'Enclos' character is to be found in her
toleration and liberality. Utterly unselfish, she had no thoughts
beyond the comfort and, happiness of her friends. For them she
sacrificed her person, an astounding sacrifice in a woman, one for
which a multitude have suffered martyrdom for refusing to make, and
are cited as models of virtue to be followed. Yet, notwithstanding her
strange misapplication or perversion