It was not long before another step in advance was taken, by which every nobleman was permitted to entertain his own personal _autheur_, and to compose "works of the mind" for himself. But he who succumbed to the epidemic (_cacoëthes scribendi_), owed it to his birth and breeding to hide his malady, or to make excuses for it. Mlle. de Scudéry puts in the mouth of _Sapho_ (herself) in _Le Grand Cyrus_[18]: Nothing is more inconvenient than to be intellectual or to be treated as if one were so, when one has a noble heart and a certain degree of birth; for I hold that it is an indubitable fact that from the moment one separates himself from the multitude, distinguishing one's self by the enlightenment of one's mind; when one acquires the reputation of having more mind than another, and of writing well enough--in prose or in verse--to be able to compose books, then, I say, one loses one half of one's nobility--if one has any--and one is not one half as important as another of the same house and of the same blood, who has not meddled with writings.... About the time this opinion saw the light, Tallemant des Réaux wrote to M. de Montausier, husband of the beautiful Julie d'Angennes, and one of the satellites of the Hôtel de Rambouillet: "He plys the trade of a man of mind too well for a man of quality--or at least he plays the part too seriously ... he has even made translations...." This mention is marked by one just feature: the man who wrote, who could write, or who indulged in writing, was supposed to have judgment enough to keep him from attaching importance to his works. The fine world had regained the taste for refinement lost in the fracas of the civil wars; but in the higher classes of society was still reflected the horror of the preceding generations for pedants and for pedantry. Ignorant or learned, half-grown boys were cast forward by their hasty education into their various careers when they had barely left the ranks of infancy. They were reckless, still in the flower of their giddy youth; but they were enthusiastic and generous. France received their high spirits very kindly. Deprived of the good humour, and stripped of the illusions furnished by the young representatives of their manhood, the times would have been too hard to be endured. The traditions of the centuries when might was the only right still weighed upon the soul of the people. One of those traditions exacted that--from his infancy--a man should be "trained to blood." A case was cited where a man had his prisoners killed by his own son,--a child ten years old. One exaction was that a man should never be conscious of the sufferings of a plebeian.