240. Insufficient Instruction.—“Our day,” says Lavallée, “would not accept that education in which instruction properly so-called was but a secondary matter, and entirely sacrificed to the manner of training the heart, the reason, and the character; and an education, too, that, as a whole and in its details, was wholly religious.” The error of Madame de Maintenon consists essentially in the wish to develop the moral virtues in souls scarcely instructed, scarcely enlightened. There was much moral discoursing at Saint Cyr. If it did not always bear fruit, it was because the seed fell into intelligences that were but little cultivated.
“Our young women are not to be made scholarly. Women never know except by halves, and the little that they know usually makes them conceited, disdainful, chatty, and disgusted with serious things.”
241. Manual Labor.—If intellectual education was neglected at Saint Cyr, by way of compensation great attention was paid to manual education. The girls were there taught to sew, to embroider, to knit, and to make tapestry; and there was also made there all the linen for the house, the infirmary, and the chapel, and the dresses and clothing of the ladies and the pupils:—
“But no exquisite productions,” says Madame de Maintenon, “nor of very elaborate design; none of those flimsy edgings in embroidery or tapestry, which are of no use.”
With what good grace Madame de Maintenon ever preaches the gospel of labor, of which she herself gave the example! In the coaches of the king, she always had some work in hand. At Saint Cyr, the young women swept the dormitories, put in order the refectory, and dusted the class-rooms. “They must be put at every kind of service, and made to work at what is burdensome, in order to make them robust, healthy, and intelligent.”
“Manual labor is a moral safeguard, a protection against sin.”
“Work calms the passions, occupies the mind, and does not leave it time to think of evil.”
242. Moral Education.—“The Institute,” said Madame de Maintenon, “is intended, not for prayer, but for action.” What she wished, above all else, was to prepare young women for home and family life. She devoted her thought to the training of wives and mothers. “What I lack most,” she said, “is sons-in-law!” Hence she was incessantly preoccupied with moral qualities. One might make a fine and valuable book of selections out of all the practical maxims of Madame de Maintenon; as her reflections on talkativeness: “There is always sin in a multitude of words;” on indolence: “What can be done in the family of an indolent and fastidious woman?” on politeness, “which consists, above all else, in giving one’s thought to others;” on lack of energy, then too common among women of the world: “The only concern is to eat and to take one’s ease. Women spend the day in morning-gowns, reclining in easy-chairs, without any occupation, and without conversation; all is well, provided one be in a state of repose.”
243. Discreet Devotion.—We must not imagine that Saint Cyr was a house of prayer, a place of overdone devotion. Madame de Maintenon held to a reasonable Christianity. Piety, such as was recommended at Saint Cyr, is a piety that is steadfast, judicious, and simple; that is, conformed to the state in which one ought to live, and exempt from refinements.
“The young women are too much at church, considering their age,” she wrote to Madame de Brinon, the first director of the institution.... “Consider, I pray you, that this is not to be a cloister.”[149]