390 



countably Incurred by exposing so tender an infant in 

 a winter's night, when the parties might have sent it 

 at once to the place where it was destined to be 

 brought up. It is more likely that the mother, afraid 

 of the discovery, if not of the burthen to be thrown 

 upon her, caused the exposure before the father was 

 apprized of the birth having happened, and that as 

 soon as he knew of what had been done, he hastened 

 to send after the person who had been entrusted with 

 the charge. The mother was an unmarried lady, sister 

 to Cardinal Tencin, Archbishop of Lyons, and she was 

 afterwards well known in the circles of Paris as a 

 person of rare talents and accomplishments. Mar- 

 montel, in his Memoirs, calls her Madame de Tencin, 

 she having probably in her old age passed by that 

 name; and he relates some of her sayings, of which 

 one is singular in relation to the life of her celebrated 

 son. " Woe to him," said she, " who depends for his 

 subsistence on his pen ! The shoemaker is secure of 

 his wages ; the bookmaker is not secure of anything." 

 She was wont also to give the result of her experience 

 of men, by recommending persons who lacked friends 

 to prefer choosing them among women, as they are 

 far more zealous to serve those they wish well to ; but 

 then, she added, " You must be their friend, and not 

 their lover." She was the author of a novel, ' Les 

 Memoires du Comte de Cominges,' of which a good 

 judge, Baron Grimm, says, " 11 est en possession de 

 faire pleurer." After giving an account of the plot, 

 he adds. " II a toujours conserve beaucoup de repu- 

 tation;" and he adds, "II est de feu Mme. Tencin, 

 soeur du Cardinal de ce nom ; cette femme celebre de 

 plus d'une maniere."* This celebrated person was 

 the centre of a distinguished circle of society remark- 

 able for wit, talents, and accomplishments, and after 

 her death Mme. GeofFrin succeeded to her post. 



* Corr. iv., 276. 



