An opposition party soon arose, formed by those, especially, who entertained different ideas of the sphere and duties of woman.  Just as the type of the salon of Mme. de Rambouillet degenerated among the aristocracy into those of the Hotel de Conde, Mme. de Sable, and Mlle. de Luxembourg, so the type of the salon of Mlle. de Scudery gave rise to a number of literary salons among the bourgeoisie.  The aim of the latter institutions was to imitate her example in endeavoring to spread the taste for courtesy, elegant manners and the higher forms of learning; all these aspirations, however, drifted into mere affectation, while the requisites of welcome at the original salon were simplicity, freedom from affectation, delicacy, amiability, and dignity.

As a writer, Mlle. de Scudery occupies no mean position in the history of French literature of the seventeenth century.  Her descriptions and anecdotes possess a wonderful charm and display unusual power of analysis; in them, Victor Cousin recognizes a truly virile spirit.  In the history of the French novel, she forms a transition period, her productions having both a psychological interest and a historical value of a very high degree.  Through her finesse and marvellous feminine penetration, her truthful, delicate and fine portraitures, which were widely imitated later, she has exerted an extensive influence.

With Mlle. de Scudery “we have substance, real character painting, true psychological penetration, and realism in observation,” while previously the novel, under such men as Gomberville and La Calprenede, was imaginative and full of fancy.  Her talent, then, in that field, lay in the analysis and development of sentiments, in delineation of character, in the creation and reproduction of refined and ingenious conversations, and in her reflections on subjects pertaining to morality and literature—­in all of which she displayed justness and entire liberty and independence of thought.  Her poetry, delicate compliment or innocent gallantries, was a mere bagatelle of the salon.

Charming as well as accomplished, Mlle. de Scudery was as intelligent, witty, and intellectual a woman as could be found in the seventeenth century; and in the history of that period she retains an undisputed position as one of its great leaders of thought and progress.  Her salon, inasmuch as the salon of Mme. de Lambert was not opened until 1710, and therefore the discussion of it belongs properly to the beginning of the eighteenth century, really closes the literary progress of the seventeenth century.

The influence of the seventeenth century salon was of a threefold nature—­literary, moral, and social.  According to the salon conception, artistic, literary, or musical pleasure being derived from form and mode of expression, it possessed a special and unique interest in proportion to the efforts made and the difficulties surmounted in attaining that form and expression:  thus, woman introduced a new standard of excellence.