第 26 节
作者:车水马龙01      更新:2021-03-11 18:31      字数:9322
  clergy who had no attribute of priesthood but the name; and clearly justified the sneers of the philosophers。  Tradition had given place to private judgment and in its first reaction private judgment knew no law but its own caprices。  The watchword of intellectual freedom was made to cover universal license; and clever sophists constructed theories to justify the mad carnival of vice and frivolity。  〃As soon as one does a bad action; one never fails to make a bad maxim;〃 said the clever Marquise de Crequi。  〃As soon as a school boy has his love affairs; he wishes no more to say his prayers; and when a woman wrongs her husband; she tries to believe no more in God。〃
  The fact that this brilliant but heartless and epicurean world was tempered with intellect and taste changed its color but not its moral quality。  Talent turned to intrigue; and character was the toy of the scheming and flexible brain。  The maxims of La Rochefoucauld were the rule of life。  Wit counted for everything; the heart for nothing。  The only sins that could not be pardoned were stupidity and awkwardness。  〃Bah!  He has only revealed every one's secret;〃 said Mme。 du Defand to an acquaintance who censured Helvetius for making selfishness the basis of all human actions。  To some one who met this typical woman of her time; in the gay salon of Mme。 de Marchais; and condoled with her upon the death of her lifelong friend and lover; Pont de Veyle; she quietly replied; 〃Alas!  He died this evening at six o〃clock; otherwise you would not see me here。〃  〃My friend fell ill; I attended him; he died; and I dissected him〃 was the remark of a wit on reading her satirical pen portrait of the Marquise du Chatelet。  This cold skepticism; keen analysis; and undisguised heartlessness strike the keynote of the century which was socially so brilliant; intellectually so fruitful; and morally so weak。
  The liberty and complaisance of the domestic relations were complete。  It is true there were examples of conjugal devotion; for the gentle human affections never quite disappear in any atmosphere; but the fact that they were considered worthy of note sufficiently indicates the drift of the age。  In the world of fashion and of form there was not even a pretense of preserving the sanctity of marriage; if the chronicles of the time are to be credited。  It was simply a commercial affair which united names and fortunes; continued the glory of the families; replenished exhausted purses; and gave freedom to women。  If love entered into it at all; it was by accident。  This superfluous sentiment was ridiculed; or relegated to the bourgeoisie; to whom it was left to preserve the tradition of household virtues。  Every one seems to have accepted the philosophy of the irrepressible Ninon; who 〃returned thanks to God every evening for her esprit; and prayed him every morning to be preserved from follies of the heart。〃  If a young wife was modest or shy; she was the object of unflattering persiflage。  If she betrayed her innocent love for her husband; she was not of the charmed circle of wit and good tone which frowned upon so vulgar a weakness; and laughed at inconvenient scruples。
  〃Indeed;〃 says a typical husband of the period; 〃I cannot conceive how; in the barbarous ages; one had the courage to wed。  The ties of marriage were a chain。  Today you see kindness; liberty; peace reign in the bosom of families。  If husband and wife love each other; very well; they live together; they are happy。  If they cease to love; they say so honestly; and return to each other the promise of fidelity。  They cease to be lovers; they are friends。  That is what I call social manners; gentle manners。〃  This reign of the senses is aptly illustrated by the epitaph which the gay; voluptuous; and spirtuelle Marquise de Boufflers wrote for herself:
  Ci…git dans une paix profonde Cette Dame de Volupte Qui; pour plus grande surete; Fit son paradis de ce monde。
  〃Courte et bonne;〃 said the favorite daughter of the Regent; in the same spirit。
  It is against such a background that the women who figure so prominently in the salons are outlined。  Such was the air they breathed; the spirit they imbibed。  That it was fatal to the finer graces of character goes without saying。  Doubtless; in quiet and secluded nooks; there were many human wild flowers that had not lost their primitive freshness and delicacy; but they did not flourish in the withering atmosphere of the great world。  The type in vogue savored of the hothouse。  With its striking beauty of form and tropical richness of color; it had no sweetness; no fragrance。  Many of these women we can only consider on the worldly and intellectual side。  Sydney Smith has aptly characterized them as 〃women who violated the common duties of life; and gave very pleasant little suppers。〃  But standing on the level of a time in which their faults were mildly censured; if at all; their characteristic gifts shine out with marvelous splendor。  It is from this standpoint alone that we can present them; drawing the friendly mantle of silence over grave weaknesses and fatal errors。
  In this century; in which women have so much wider scope; when they may paint; carve; act; sing; write; enter professional life; or do whatever talent and inclination dictate; without loss of dignity or prestige; unless they do it ill;and perhaps even this exception is a trifle superfluous;it is difficult to understand fully; or estimate correctly; a society in which the best feminine intellect was centered upon the art of entertaining and of wielding an indirect power through the minds of men。  These Frenchwomen had all the vanity that lies at the bottom of the Gallic character; but when the triumphs of youth were over; the only legitimate path to individual distinction was that of social influence。  This was attained through personal charm; supplemented by more or less cleverness; or through the gift of creating a society that cast about them an illusion of talent of which they were often only the reflection。  To these two classes belong the queens of the salons。  But the most famous of them only carried to the point of genius a talent that was universal。
  In its best estate a brilliant social life is essentially an external one。  Its charm lies largely in the superficial graces; in the facile and winning manners; the ready tact; the quick intelligence; the rare and perishable gifts of conversationin the nameless trifles which are elusive as shadows and potent as light。  It is the way of putting things that tells; rather than the value of the things themselves。  This world of draperies and amenities; of dinners and conversaziones; of epigrams; coquetries; and sparkling trivialities in the Frenchwoman's milieu。  It has little in common with the inner world that surges forever behind and beneath it; little sympathy with inconvenient ideals and exalted sentiments。  The serious and earnest soul to which divine messages have been whispered in hours of solitude finds its treasures unheeded; its language unspoken here。  The cares; the burdens; the griefs that weigh so heavily on the great heart of humanity are banished from this social Eden。  The Frenchman has as little love for the somber side of life as the Athenian; who veiled every expression of suffering。  〃Joy marks the force of the intellect;〃 said the pleasure…loving Ninon。  It is this peculiar gift of projecting themselves into a joyous atmosphere; of treating even serious subjects in a piquant and lively fashion; of dwelling upon the pleasant surface of things; that has made the French the artists; above all others; of social life。  The Parisienne selects her company; as a skillful leader forms his orchestra; with a fine instinct of harmony; no single instrument dominates; but every member is an artist in his way; adding his touch of melody or color in the fitting place。  She aims; perhaps unconsciously; at a poetic ideal which shall express the best in life and thought; divested of the rude and commonplace; untouched by sorrow or passion; and free from personality。
  But the representative salons; which have left a permanent mark upon their time; and a memory that does not seem likely to die; were no longer simply centers of refined and intellectual amusement。  The moral and literary reaction of the seventeenth century was one of the great social and political forces of the eighteenth。  The salon had become a vast engine of power; an organ of public opinion; like the modern press。  Clever and ambitious women had found their instrument and their opportunity。  They had long since learned that the homage paid to weakness is illusory; that the power of beauty is short…lived。  With none of the devotion which had made the convent the time…honored refuge of tender and exalted souls; finding little solace in the domestic affections which played so small a role in their lives; they turned the whole force of their clear and flexible minds to this new species of sovereignty。  Their keenness of vision; their consummate skill in the adaptation of means to ends; their knowledge of the world; their practical intelligence; their instinct of pleasing; all fitted them for the part they assumed。  They distinctly illustrated the truth that 〃our ideal is not out of ourse