The International Weekly Miscellany - Volume I, No. 4 | Page 3

he lays upon the court the blame of allowing the influence which
literature then exercised upon the people, to be withdrawn altogether
from king and his ministers, and to be transferred to the hands of the
Parisian ladies and farmers-general, &c. Voltaire, in his well-known
verses,[1] admits, with great openness and simplicity, that he attached
much importance to the applause of a court, although it neither
possessed judgment nor feeling for the merits of a writer, nor for
poetical beauties; and he complains at the same time that this court had
neither duly estimated his tragedies nor his epic poems. It is
characteristic both of the court and of Voltaire that he eagerly pressed
himself forward for admission to its favor, and sought to attract
attention by a work which be himself called a piece of trash, and that
the court extended its approbation and applause to this miserable and
altogether inappropriate piece, ('La Princesse de Navarre,') which he
composed on the occasion of the Dauphin's marriage with the Infanta
of Spain, whilst it entirely neglected his masterpieces.
The Paris societies had got full possession of the field of literature, and
erected their tribunals before the middle of the century, whilst at
Versailles nothing was spoken or thought of except amusements and
hunting, Jesuits and processions, and the grossest sensuality prevailed.
The members of the Parisian societies were not a whit more moral or
decent in their behavior than those about the court at Versailles, but
they carried on open war against hypocrisy, and all that was praised and
approved of by the court.
We shall now proceed to mention three or four of the most
distinguished of those societies, which have obtained an historical
importance, not merely for the French literature and mental and moral
culture of the eighteenth century, but for Europe in general, without
however restraining ourselves precisely within the limits of the half
century. The minute accounts which Grimm has given, for the most
part affect only the later periods; we turn our attention therefore the
rather to what the weak, vain, talkative Marmontel has related to us on
the subject in his 'Autobiography,' because Rousseau was by far too

one-sided in his notices, and drew public attention to the most
demoralized and degraded members of the circle only.
The first lady who must be mentioned, is Madame de Tencin. She
belonged to the period within which we must confine ourselves, and
she gained for herself such a name, not only in Paris, but in all Europe,
that she was almost regarded as the creator of that new literature which
stood in direct and bold opposition to the prevailing taste, inasmuch as
she received at her house, entertained and cherished, those who were
really its originators and supporters. This lady could not boast of the
morality of her early years, nor of her respect even for common
propriety. She is not only notorious for having exposed, when a child,
the celebrated D'Alembert, who was her natural son, and for regarding
with indifference his being brought up by the wife of a common glazier
as her own son; but stories still worse than even these are told of her.
She enriched herself, as many others did, in the time of Law's scheme,
by no very creditable means; and fell under such a serious suspicion of
having been privy to the death of one of those who had carried on an
intrigue with her, that she was imprisoned and involved in a criminal
prosecution, from which she escaped, not through her own innocence,
but by means of the powerful influence of her distinguished relations
and friends.
All this did not prevent Pope Benedict XIV., who, as Cardinal
Lambertini, had been often at her house, as a member of the society of
men of talents who met there, from carrying on a continual intercourse
with her by letter; he also sent her his picture as a testimony of kind
remembrance. This lady succeeded in procuring for her brother the
dignity of a cardinal, and through him had great weight with Fleury,
with the court, and with the city in general; she is also known as an
authoress. As we are not writing a history of literature properly
speaking, we pass by her novels in silence, with this remark only, that
people are accustomed to place the 'Comte de Comminges,' written by
Madame de Tencin, on the same footing with the 'Princess de Clêve,'
by Madame de Lafayette.
The society in the house of Madame de Tencin consisted of

well-known men of learning, and some younger men of distinguished
name and family; she united, in later years, a certain amiability with her
care for the entertainment and recreation of those whom she had once
received into her house. This society, after the