Yes, we are mending. Very different are our times from those when Madame de Genlis published her little work, _De l'Influence des Femmes sur la Littérature Française comme Protectrices des Lettres, et comme Auteurs_. She had to contend, with the same acrid energy, for the privilege of a lady to write, as a Turkish dame of the present century might be supposed to display, who should contend for the privilege of walking abroad unveiled, or rather unmuffled. And even she herself thinks it necessary to give certain rules to young women who write--as she would to young women who dance--how to comport themselves with consummate propriety; as not to enter into controversy, or use big words--in short, to deal with printer's ink without soiling the most delicate fingers. As to that argument drawn from the supposed neglect of domestic duties--which it seems, in those days just emerging from barbarity, was still heard of--she dismisses it very briefly. "Comme ces devoirs dans une maison bien ordonnée, ne peuvent jamais prendre _plus d'une heure par jour_, cette objection est absolument nulle." As there is much implied in that "maison bien ordonnée," and as Madame de Genlis did not write for simple gentle-folks, it is to be hoped that the one hour per diem may admit of extension without any forfeiture of literary privileges. In her time, too, there was thought to be a sort of feud between authors and authoresses--a thing which in our day, is quite inconceivable--for she writes, apropos of a charge of plagiarism, against La Fontaine, in the following indignant strain:--"Quelles que soient le bonhomie et la candeur d'un auteur, il sait que, par une loi tacite mais universelle, il est toujours dispensé de convenir qu'il doit à une femme une idée heureuse. Dans ce cas seulement le plagiat et le silence sont également légitimes."