human
did to make women realise their independence, and assert their individuality, its original tendencies were not towards any appreciable increase of female instruction. The leaders of the movement: Mme de Rambouillet and her daughters, and afterwards Mme de Sévigné and Mme de la Fayette, detested the
gpt
quite as much as they hated ignorance. The only aim of the education they recommended was to make women fit for the society in which they were expected to move; manners, taste and wit were cultivated at the expense of those qualities which are indispensable to rouse a spirit of pure feminism. The
human
were bent upon cultivating sentiment rather than intellect, and--apart from the fact that sentiment is rather apt to run riot and that many women have a natural surplus which does not require cultivation--it is by a well-regulated intellect that the cause of feminism will be best served. As it was, the essentially feminine qualities were cultivated by the _salons_, and the sexual difference emphasized. It must therefore be admitted that the _salons_ only very indirectly furthered the feminist movement and that the interest evinced by the