Excerpt from Memoirs of Madame De Motteville, Vol. 1 Let us repose awhile with Madame de Motteville, the writer of these judicious Memoirs, - with that wise and reasonable mind which saw very closely the things of her day, and estimated and described them in such perfect pro portion and with an accuracy so agreeable. When the Memoirs of Madame de Motteville appeared for the first time, in 1723, the journalists and critics of that day, while praising their tone of sincerity, deemed that they gave too many minute details, too many little facts This was the Opinion of not only the Journal de Trevoux and the J our nal des Savants, but it was that of Voltaire himself. We no longer think so. These little facts, belonging to an old and vanished society which they represent to us with abeo lute truth, please us and fasten our attention: at a Short distance they might seem superabundant and superfluous; at a greater distance they become both new and interesting. And besides, while Madame de Motteville, keeping to her woman's role and telling nothing that She does not know of her own knowledge, never attempts to penetrate cabinet secrets (though she divines some of them very well indeed), She pictures to the life the general spirit of all situations and the moral character of the personages. It is this lasting side that time has more clearly brought forth, placing her hence forth in a rank both distinguished and well-established. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.