[83] In October (?) 1776, Mrs. Montagu wrote to Beattie: ‘As I passed a good deal of my time with the Litterati at Paris, you may imagine I heard much of the manner of Mr. Hume’s taking leave of the world. “Les Philosophes” (as they call themselves) were pleased that he supported the infidel character with so much constancy.’ M. Forbes’s Beattie and his Friends 130.
[84] Letters 6. 309; 3 October 1765.
[85] Ib., 6. 332.
[86] Ib., 6. 358.
[87] See Letters 6. 332: ‘Good folks, they have no time to laugh.’ ‘M. de Fontenelle,’ asked Madame Geoffrin one day, ‘Vous n’avez jamais ri?’ ‘Non,’ he replied, ‘je n’ai jamais fait ah, ah, ah.’ Necker, Nouveaux Mélanges 1. 165. Chesterfield’s hatred of laughter, that ‘shocking distortion of the face,’ is well-known; he boasted that he had never been seen to laugh.
[88] Lettres à Walpole 1. 577; 24 May 1769.
[89] Letters 6. 404; 25 January 1766.
[90] Ten years later Madame du Deffand gave him a more startling illustration of French motherliness. See Letters 9. 236.
[91] Cf. Professor Brunel in Petit de Julleville’s Histoire 6. 410: ‘C’est en effet la “raison” qu’on reconnaît à Madame Geoffrin pour mérite éminent.’
[92] Letters 6. 395; 11 January 1766.