And later, after the reform had begun, this is what she wrote:—
“Let the piety with which our young girls shall be inspired be cheerful, gentle, and free. Let it consist rather in the innocence of their lives, and in the simplicity of their occupations, than in the austerities, the retirements, and the refinements of devotion.... When a girl comes from a convent, saying that nothing ought to interfere with vespers, she is laughed at; but when an educated woman shall say that vespers may be omitted for the sake of attending her sick husband, everybody will commend her.... When a girl shall say that a woman does better to educate her children and instruct her servants than to spend the forenoon in church, that religion will be heartily accepted, and will make itself loved and respected.”[150] Excellent advice, perhaps too little followed! Madame de Maintenon here speaks the language of good sense, and we are wholly surprised to hear it from the lips of a politic woman who, not without reason, and for her part in the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, has the reputation of being an intolerant fanatic.
244. Simplicity in All Things.—The simplicity which she recommended in religion, Madame de Maintenon demanded in everything,—in dress and in language: “Young girls,” she says, “must wear as few ribbons as possible.”
A class-teacher had given a fine lecture, in which she exhorted her pupils to make an “eternal divorce” with sin. “Very well said, doubtless,” remarked Madame de Maintenon; “but, pray, who among our young ladies knows what divorce is?”
245. Fénelon and Saint Cyr.—Michelet, speaking of Saint Cyr, which he does not love, said: “Its cold governess was much more a man than Fénelon.” The fact is, that the author of the Education of Girls gives a larger place to sensibility and intelligence. It is not Madame de Maintenon who said: “As much as possible, tenderness of heart must be excused in young girls.” It is not at Saint Cyr that these maxims were practised. “Pray let them have Greek and Roman histories. They will find in them prodigies of courage and disinterestedness. Let them not be ignorant of the history of France, which also has its beauty.... All this serves to give dignity to the mind, and to lift the soul to noble sentiments.” Nevertheless, Fénelon’s work was highly esteemed at Saint Cyr. It appeared in 1687, and Saint Cyr was founded in 1686. A great number of its precepts were there observed, such as the following: “Frequent leaves of absence should be avoided;” “Young girls should not be accustomed to talk much.”
246. General Judgment.—In a word, if the ideal proposed to the young women of Saint Cyr by Madame de Maintenon cannot satisfy those who, in our day, conceive “an education broader in its scheme and more liberal in its spirit,” at least we must do justice to an institution which was, as its foundress said, “a kind of college,” a first attempt at enfranchisement in the education of women. Without demanding of Madame de Maintenon what was not in her age to give, let us be inspired by her in what concerns the changeless education in moral virtues, and in the qualities of discretion, reserve, goodness, and submission. “However severe that education may appear,” says Lavallée, “I believe it will suggest better reflections to those who observe the way in which women are educated to-day, and the results of that education in luxury and pleasure, not only on the fireside, but still more on society and political life, and on the future of the men that it is preparing for France. I believe they will prefer that manly education, so to speak, which purified private morals and begot public virtues; and that they will esteem and regret that work of Madame de Maintenon, which for a century prevented the corruption of the Court from extending to the provinces, and maintained in the old country-seats, from which came the greater part of the nobility, the substantial virtues and the simple manners of the olden time.”
[247. Analytical Summary.—1. The education of women in the seventeenth century reflects the sentiment of the age as to their relative position in society, their rights, and their destiny. Woman was still regarded as the inferior of man, in the lower classes as a drudge, in the higher as an ornament; in her case, intellectual culture was regarded as either useless or dangerous; and the education that was given her was to fit her for a life of devotion or a life of seclusion from society.
2. The rules of Jacqueline Pascal exhibit the effects of an ascetic belief on education,—human nature is corrupt; all its likes are to be thwarted, and all its dislikes fostered under compulsion.
3. The education directed by Madame de Maintenon is the beginning of a rupture with tradition. It was a movement towards the secularization of woman’s education, and towards the recognition of her equality with man, with respect to her grade of intellectual endowments, her intellectual culture, and to her participation in the duties of real life.