Of the young girls in her charge, she desired to make model women, characterized by simplicity and piety; they were to be free from morbid curiosity of mind, were to practise absolute self-denial and to devote their lives to a practical labor.  Her advice was:  “Be reasonable or you will be unhappy; if you are haughty, you will be reminded of your misery, but if you are humble, people will recall your birth....  Commence by making yourself loved, without which you will never succeed.  Is it not true that, had you not loved me or had you had an aversion for me, you would not have accepted, with such good grace, the counsels that I have given you?  This is absolutely certain—­the most beautiful things when taught by persons who displease us, do not impress but rather harden us.”

A counsel that strikes home forcibly to-day, one which strongly attacks the modern fad of neglecting home for church, is expressed well in one of her letters:  “Your piety will not be right if, when married, you abandon your husband, your children and your servants, to go to the churches at times when you are not obliged to go there.  When a young girl says that a woman would do better properly to raise her children and instruct her servants, than to spend her morning in church, one can accommodate one’s self to such religion, which she will cause to be loved and respected.”

At the hour of leisure, she gave the girls those familiar talks which were anticipated by them with so much pleasure, and extracts from which are still cherished by the young women of France.  She believed that the aim of instruction for young girls should be to educate them to be Christian women with well-balanced and logical minds.  With her varied experience of the ups and downs of life, she gradually came to the conclusion that, after all, there is nothing in the world so good as sound common sense, but one that is not enamored of itself, which obeys established laws and knows its own limits.  Her sex is intended to obey, thus her reason was a Christian reason.

“You can be truly reasonable only in proportion as you are subservient to God....  Never tell children fantastic stories, nor permit them to believe them; give them things for what they are worth.  Never tell them stories of which, when they grow to independent reasoning, you must disillusion them.  You must talk to a girl of seven as seriously and with as much reason as to a young lady of twenty.  You must take part in the pleasures of children, but never accommodate them with a childish language or with foolish or puerile ways.  You can never be too reasonable or too sane.  Religion, reason, and truth are always good.”