The salon of Mlle. de Lespinasse, her rival, was of a different type, being exclusively intellectual, but permitting absolute liberty of expression of opinions.  Born in 1732, at the house of a surgeon of Lyons, she was the illegitimate daughter of the Comtesse d’Albon and was baptized as the child of a man supposed to be named Claude Lespinasse.  From 1753 she was the constant attendant to Mme. du Deffand, her mother’s sister-in-law, for a period of ten years, until she became completely worn out physically, morally, and mentally by incessant care and endless all-night readings.  An attempt to end her existence with sixty grains of opium failed.  Owing to the jealousy of Mme. du Deffand, a separation ensued in 1764, when she retired some distance from the Convent Saint-Joseph to very modest apartments, where, by means of her friends, she was able to receive in a dignified way.  The Marechale de Luxembourg completely fitted up her apartment, the Duc de Choiseul succeeded in getting her an annual pension from the king, and Mme. Geoffrin allowed her three thousand francs.

The majority of the members of her salon were from that of Mme. du Deffand, having followed Mlle. de Lespinasse after the rupture of the two women; besides these, there were Condorcet, Helvetius, Grimm, Marmontel, Condillac, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, and many others.  As her hours for receiving were after five o’clock, her friends were made to understand that her means were not such as to warrant suppers or dinners, four o’clock being the dinner hour in those days.

Her salon immediately became known as the official encyclopaedia resort, Mme. du Deffand dubbing it La Muse de l’Encyclopedie.  D’Alembert was the high priest, and it was not long before he was comfortably lodged in the third story of her house, Mlle. de Lespinasse having nursed him through a malignant fever which the poor man had contracted in the wretched place where he lodged.  A strange gathering, those salons!  Mlle. de Lespinasse, one of the leaders in the social world, with a prominent salon, was the illegitimate daughter of a Comtesse d’Albon, and her presiding genius was the illegitimate son of Mme. de Tencin; here we find the wealthiest and most elegant of the aristocracy coming from their palaces to meet, in friendly social and intellectual intercourse, men who lived on a mere pittance, dressed on almost nothing, lodged in the most wretched of dens, boarding wherever a salon or palace was opened to them.  Surely, intellect was highly valued in those days, and moral etiquette was at a low ebb!