NINON DE =NUM, a celebrated French woman, one of those characters that could have appeared only in the French society of the 17th c., was born of good family at Paris in 1615. Her mother tried to imbue her mind with a love of the principles of religion and morality, but her father, more successfully, with a taste for pleasure. Even as a child she was remarkable for her beauty and the exquisite grace of her person. She was carefully educated, spoke several foreign languages, excelled in music and dancing, and had a great fund of sharp and lively wit. At the age of ten she read Montaigne's Essays. Six years later, she commenced her long career of licentious gallantry by an amour with Gaspard de Coligny, then comte de Chatilon. To Coligny succeeded innumerable favorites, but never more than one at a time. Among Ninon de Lenclos's lovers we may mention the marquis de Villarceaux, the marquis de Sevigne, the marquis de Gersay, the great Conde, the due de. Larochefoucauld, marshal d'Albret, marshal d'Estrees, the abbe d'Effiat, Gourville, and La Chfitre. She had two sons, but never howed in regard to them the slightest instinct of maternity. The fate of one was rible. Brought up in ignorance of his mother, he followed the rest of the world, and
conceived a passion for her. When she informed him of the relation that subsisted between them, the unhappy youth was seized with horror, and blew out his brains in a frenzy of remorse. Even this calamity did not seriously affect Ninon de Lenclos; she was too well-bred to allow it to do that. Ninon de Lenclos was nearly as celebrated for her manners as for her beauty. The most respectable and virtuous women sent their children to her house to acquire taste, style, politeness. So °Teat was her reputation, that when queen Christina of Sweden came to Paris, she said she wished particularly to visit the French academy and Ninon de Lenclos. We may gather some idea of her wit and sense from the fact that Larochefoucauld consulted her upon his maxims, Moliere upon his comedies, and Scarron upon his romances. She died Oct. 17, 1706, at the age rof 90, having preserved some remains of her beauty almost to the last.—See Guyon de Sardiere's Vie de Ninon de Lenclos; Saint-Evremond's ffi'uvres; Douxmesnil's ilfenzobres pour servir a l'Histoire de _Mlle. de Lenelos.