One is not accustomed to think of Marivaux as a moralist, yet this frilled and powdered representative of the _beau monde_, this courtly gentleman, this graceful writer, was one of the powers for good of his time. Throughout his plays and novels, and particularly in his journals, may be seen this nobler side of the man's nature. He was a practical moralist, with little love for abstract theories, and a morality far from asceticism, but, with profound unselfishness and pity for his fellow-man, he strove to right the wrongs and correct the abuses of a cruelly indifferent and light-hearted society. He once said of himself: "Je serais peu flatte d'entendre dire que je suis un bel esprit; mais si on m'apprenait que mes ecrits eussent corrige quelques vices, ou seulement quelque vicieux, je serais vraiment sensible a cet eloge."[78] However, he was tolerant, as one who knows the weaknesses that flesh is heir to, and, whether his attack was aimed at the petty foibles or graver weaknesses of the individual, coquetry, ambition, avarice, hypocrisy, vanity, and the like, or at certain social evils, the reprimand was always given with a tone of moderation. Throughout his writings Marivaux showed himself heartily opposed to the loose ideas then prevalent upon the marriage relation, and, as though to emphasize his convictions in this matter, his comedies all end with "the triumph of love in marriage." In certain ones, as for example _le Petit Maitre corrige_ (acte I, scene XII) and _l'Heritier de Village_ (scene II), this social evil is more directly attacked, as it is also in several portions of the _Spectateur francais_, and particularly in the sixteenth _feuille_. He was likewise an opponent of the strained relations that existed in most families between parents and children. Instead of the deplorable custom of making of each household a miniature court, in which the parents reigned over timid but unwilling subjects, he advocated intimate and loving relations. "Voulez-vous faire d'honnetes gens de vos enfants? Ne soyez que leur pere, et non pas leur juge et leur tyran. Et qu'est-ce que c'est qu'etre leur pere? c'est leur persuader que vous les aimez. Cette persuasion-la commence par vous gagner leur coeur. Nous aimons toujours ceux dont nous sommes surs d'etre aimes."[79] Was it not Mme. de Lambert, from whom Marivaux gained many of his ideas, who had said: "Les enfants aiment a etre traites en personnes raisonnables. Il faut entretenir en eux cette espece de fierte, et s'en servir comme d'un moyen pour les conduire ou l'on veut"? Where is there a more charming character than that of _la Mere confidente_, willing to sacrifice the dreaded name of mother in order to become her daughter's friend and confidante, or than the indulgent father of _le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard_? Such examples indicate the kindly philosophy that permeates his writings.