She was a veritable enchantress of the great and the learned of her time. She did not, however, wield her magic wand through her learning, or the accident of birth, or the physical attractions of person, but solely by reason of her wonderful vivacity, charm of mind, and exquisite tact, which consisted, as those who knew her well tell us, "in the art of saying to each that which suits him," and in "making the best of the minds of others, of interesting them, and of bringing them into play without any appearance of constraint or effort." This rare faculty it was which secured for her a supremacy in the world of thought and action that has been accorded to but few women in the world's history. Vibrant with emotion and passion, she reminds one of the gifted but hapless Heloise. Marmontel, who had such a high opinion of her judgment that he submitted his works for her criticism, as Moliere had submitted his to Ninon de Lenclos, describes her as "the keenest intelligence, the most ardent soul, the most inflammable imagination that has existed since Sappho." But aside from what she achieved indirectly through the habitues of her salon, what has this supremely clever woman left to the world? Only a few love letters to a heartless coxcomb. And what have the other noted salonieres from the time of the Marquise de Rambouillet to that of Mme. Swetchine--full two centuries--bequeathed to us that is worth preserving? With the exception of the works of Mme. de Stael, whom Lord Jeffrey declared to be "the greatest female writer in any age or country," we have little more than certain _Memoires_ and _Correspondances_ whose chief claims to fame rest on the vivid pictures which they present of the manners and customs of the time and of the celebrities who were regarded as the chief ornaments of the salons which they severally frequented. Most of these works were posthumous; for few women, after Moliere's merciless scoring of learned women, had the courage to appear in print. Even Mme. de Scudery, one of the most gifted and prolific writers of the period, gave her first novel to the world under her brother's name. And so tabooed was female authorship that Mme. de La Fayette, one of the most brilliant of the _precieuses_, disclaimed all knowledge of her _Princesse de Cleves_, while her masterpiece, _Histoire d'Henriette d'Angleterre_, was not published until after her death. The truth is that the period of the salon was for the most part a period of contrasts and contradictions. At first the better educated _salonieres_ were chiefly interested in belles-lettres. Then they devoted themselves more to science and philosophy, and finally, during the years immediately preceding the Revolution, they found their greatest pleasure in politics. As for the men, while professing to adore women, they had little esteem for them, and still less respect. Often, it is true, the women who frequented the salons were deserving neither of respect nor of esteem.