Throughout life she was so generous that as soon as she received her pensions, presents, or earnings from her work, the money was distributed among the poor.  When she died, she left nothing but a few worn and homely dresses and articles of furniture.  The diversity of her works and her conduct, the politics in which she was steeped, the satires, the perfidious accusations that have pursued her, have contributed to leave of her a rather doubtful portrait; however, those who have written bitterly against her have done so mostly from personal or political animosity.  She was so many-sided—­a reformer, teacher, pietist, politician, actress—­that a true estimate of her character is difficult.  A woman of all tastes and of various talents, she was a living encyclopaedia and mistress of all arts of pleasing.  She had studied medicine, and took special delight in the art of bleeding, which she practised upon the peasants, each one of whom she would present with thirty sous (thirty cents), after the bleeding—­and she never lacked patients.  Mme. de Genlis was an expert rider and huntress; also, she was graceful, with an elegant figure, great affability, and a talent for quickly and accurately reading character; and these gifts were stepping-stones to popularity.

She wrote incessantly, on all things, essaying every style, every subject.  “She has discoursed for the education of princes and of lackeys; prepared maxims for the throne and precepts for the pantry; you might say she possessed the gift of universality.  She was gifted with a singular confidence in her own abilities, infinite curiosity, untiring industry, and never-ending and inexhaustible energy.  She wrote nearly as much as Voltaire, and barely excelled him in the amount of unreadable work, which, if printed, would fill over one hundred volumes.”

“Let us remember,” says Mr. Dobson, “her indefatigable industry and untiring energy, her kindness to her relatives and admirers, her courage and patience when in exile and poverty, her great talent, perseverance, and rare facility.”  In protesting vigorously against the universal neglect of physical development, against the absence of the gymnasium and the lack of practical knowledge in the education of her time, in advocating the study of modern languages as a means of culture and discipline, in applying to her pupils the principles of the modern experimental and observational education, Mme. de Genlis will retain a place as one of the great female educators—­as a woman pedagogue, par excellence, of the eighteenth century.

A great number of minor salons existed, which were partly literary, partly social.  From about 1750 to 1780 the amusements varied constantly, from all-day parties in the country to cafes served by the great women themselves, from playing proverbs to playing synonyms, from impromptu compositions to questionable stories, from laughter to tears, from Blind-man’s-buff to Lotto.  Some of the proverbs were quite ingenious