It is a significant
coincidence that the eighteenth century, which was marked by this new
extension of the social ritual of modesty, also saw the first appearance
of a new philosophic impulse not merely to analyze, but to dissolve the
conception of modesty. This took place more especially in France.
The swift rise to supremacy, during the seventeenth century, of logical
and rational methods of thinking, in conjunction with the new development
of geometrical and mathematical science, led in the eighteenth century to
a widespread belief in France that human customs and human society ought
to be founded on a strictly logical and rational basis. It was a belief
which ignored those legitimate claims of the emotional nature which the
nineteenth century afterwards investigated and developed, but it was of
immense service to mankind in clearing away useless prejudices and
superstitions, and it culminated in the reforms of the great Revolution
which most other nations have since been painfully struggling to attain.
Modesty offered a tempting field for the eighteenth century philosophic
spirit to explore.
The manner in which the most distinguished and adventurous minds of the
century approached it, can scarcely be better illustrated than by a
conversation, reported by Madame d'Epinay, which took place in 1750 at the
table of Mlle. Quinault, the eminent actress. "A fine virtue," Duclos
remarked, "which one fastens on in the morning with pins.
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