So far as appears, in an age when no man’s life was secure and no woman’s honor was quite safe, when men in power did not scruple to send those who were in their way out of the world, atoning for it, if it needed atonement, at least celebrating it, by a grand Te Deum, or a De Profundis,--which seems more suitable though less cheerful,--it was the women of the highest intelligence who held the balance of humanity and morals. There were wicked ones, no doubt, in abundance, as the more facile and helpless sex was not free from the subtle influence of the spirit of the age against which good men with all their vaunted strength struggled in vain. But it can hardly be disputed that the virtues and graces of character blossomed in the most significant profusion among women of distinctly scholarly tastes, who found in the pleasures of the intellect an unfailing resource against the vices as well as the sorrows and disappointments of a bad and pitiless world. THE LITERARY COURTS AND PLATONIC LOVE [Illustration: Decorative image] · Social Spirit of Women · · Accomplished Princesses · Their Executive Ability · · Caterina Sforza · Patrons of Letters · · Court of Urbino · · Duchess Elisabetta · Count Castiglione · · Record of Conversations · Qualities of a Lady · · A Medici Champion of Women · · Platonic Love · Court of Ferrara · · Boiardo · Ariosto · Duchess Leonora · · Lucrezia Borgia · Renée · Tasso’s Leonora · · Court of Mantua · Isabella d’Este · · Court of Milan · Beatrice d’Este · · Moral and Intellectual Value of Women of the Renaissance · · From Court to Literary Salon · [Illustration: Decorative image] I We have heard of a man who, after writing two hundred volumes or so on various learned subjects, added a “Eulogy of Silence.” Among other curious things, he said that he was “never more with those he loved than when alone.” Men have sometimes been known to prefer society in this form, but women rarely; they like things in the concrete, and they like to talk about them. They may turn to a life of the spirit, but even this they do not care to live in solitude. There are few anchorets among them. In their exaltation, as in their pursuit of knowledge, they seek companionship. Just how much women had to do with awakening the world from its long sleep we do not know, but they were very active in keeping it awake after it began to open its eyes. They mastered old languages, studied old manuscripts, held public discussions on classic themes, wrote verses, and entered with enthusiasm into the search for records that had been lying in the dust for a thousand years. But they did more than this: they revived the art of conversation and created society anew. Possibly this was the most distinct heritage they left to the coming ages.