The new aristocracy was of doubtful and impure source, cynical in manner, unbridled in habits, over-fastidious in taste, and politically powerful.  In this society woman began to be felt as a political force.  M. Brunetiere said:  “Mme. de Lambert made Academicians; the Marquise de Prie made a queen of France; Mme. de Tencin made cardinals and ambassadors.”  Montesquieu wrote:  “There is not a person who has any employment at the court in Paris or in the provinces, who has not the influence (and sometimes the injustices which she can cause) of a woman through whom all favors pass;” and M. Brunetiere added:  “This woman is not his wife.”  The popular spirit in literature was one of subtleness, irony, superficial observations on manners and customs.  From the beginning of the eighteenth century up to the eve of the Revolution, woman’s influence continued to increase, but that influence was mainly in the direction of politics.  Thus, in every period in French history, a group of women effectively moulds French thought and language, and directs intellectual activity in general.

After the death of Louis XIV., society passed under the rule of the regent, the Duke of Orleans—­the personification of gallantry and affability, of depravity which was a mania, and of licentiousness which was a disease.  From this atmosphere the salon of Mme. de Lambert became a refuge to those who still cherished the ideals of the good old times of Mme. de Rambouillet; it was distinguished by its refined sentiment and polished manners, which were like those of the seventeenth century at its best.

Mme. de Lambert believed that the demands of the time were just the opposite of those of the seventeenth century:  “What a multitude of tastes nowadays—­the table, play, theatre!  When money and luxury are supreme, true honor loses its power.  Persons seek only those houses where shameful luxury reigns.”  In her own salon, none might enter who were not of the small number of the elect.

Very little is known of the life of Mme. de Lambert.  She was born in 1647, and, in spite of the unfavorable surroundings of her youth and of a dissolute, extravagant, and unrefined mother, the observance of decorum and honor became the actuating principle of her life.  Until her marriage (in 1666) to Henri de Lambert, Marquis de Bris en Auxerrois, she was in the midst of the grossest licentiousness and freedom of manners; when married, she entered a family the very opposite of her own.

She was a woman who believed in the power of ambitious energy.  To her son she once said:  “Nothing is less becoming to a young man than a certain modesty that makes him believe that he is not capable of great things.  This modesty is a languor of the soul, which prevents it from soaring and rapidly carrying itself to glory.”

At first she lived in the Hotel de Lambert (in the Ile Saint-Louis), renowned for its splendidly sculptured decorations, painted ceilings, panels, and staircases.  Her famous Salon des Muses and Cabinet d’Amours were filled with the finest works of art and the most exquisite paintings.  There the elite of all classes were entertained until the death of her husband (1686), when the hotel was closed; it was not reopened until 1710.