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J. Burton Browning and Bruce Sutherland

C++20 Recipes
A Problem-Solution Approach
2nd ed.
J. Burton Browning
Bolivia, NC, USA

Bruce Sutherland
Carnegie, VIC, Australia

Any source code or other supplementary material referenced by the

author in this book is available to readers on GitHub via the book’s
product page, located at www.​apress.​com/​9781484257128 . For more
detailed information, please visit http://​www.​apress.​com/​source-code
.

ISBN 978-1-4842-5712-8 e-ISBN 978-1-4842-5713-5

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-5713-5

© J. Burton Browning and Bruce Sutherland 2020

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the

Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned,
specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other
physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.

Trademarked names, logos, and images may appear in this book. Rather
than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked
name, logo, or image we use the names, logos, and images only in an
editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no
intention of infringement of the trademark. The use in this publication
of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if
they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of
opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights.
While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true
and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the
editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any
errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no
warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained
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Distributed to the book trade worldwide by Apress Media, LLC, 1 New

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sole member (owner) is Springer Science + Business Media Finance Inc
(SSBM Finance Inc). SSBM Finance Inc is a Delaware corporation.
This book is dedicated to Zada Browning, my love and light.
Introduction
The C++ programming language is undergoing continuous development
and improvement. This effort to keep C++ on the cutting edge of
language features is driven by the fact that C++ still finds an important
role to play in high-performance, portable applications. Few other
languages can be used on as many platforms as C++ without having a
runtime environment dependency. This is partly thanks to the nature of
C++ as a compiled programming language. C++ programs are built into
application binaries through a combination of processes that include
compiling and linking.
Compiler choice is particularly important in today’s C++ landscape,
thanks to the rate at which the language is changing. Development of
the C++ programming language was started by Bjarne Stroustrup in
1979, when it was called C with Classes. The language didn’t see formal
standardization until 1998; an updated standard was published in
2003. There was another gap of eight years until the standard was
updated again with the introduction of C++11 in 2011. This version
brought a considerable number of updates to the C++ programming
language and is distinguished from “older” C++ with the modern C++
moniker. C++ 17 and C++ 20 deprecated old features and brought many
significant changes to the language.
This book introduces you to code written for the C++14 through
C++20 ISO standard using both the Clang compiler , Microsoft Visual
Studio (VS) 2019, and Xcode. Clang is an open source compiler that
started life as a closed source Apple project. Apple released the code to
the open source community in 2007, and the compiler has been adding
strengths ever since. This book explains how to install and use Clang on
a computer running OS X, Windows, or Linux (Ubuntu). The examples
that accompany each chapter have been compiled and tested using
Clang 3.5 and/or Visual Studio 2019. All of the listed applications are
free, so choose which works best for your needs, or use them all to
learn more!
The book’s accompanying source code can be accessed via
theDownload Source Code link located at
www.apress.com/9781484257128 . You can find source code for
all of the executable code listings contained in this book along with
makefiles that can be used to build running programs.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge Steve Anglin, Matthew Moodie,
and Mark Powers of Apress and the production team for their help and
support. You are all fantastic to work with!
Table of Contents
Chapter 1:​Beginning C++
Recipe 1-1.​Finding a Text Editor
Problem
Solution
Recipe 1-2.​Installing Clang on Ubuntu
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 1-3.​Installing Clang on Windows
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 1-4.​Installing Clang on macOS
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 1-5.​Building Your First C++ Program
Problem
Solution
Recipe 1-6.​Debugging C++ Programs Using GDB in Cygwin or
Linux
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 1-7.​Debugging Your C++ Programs on macOS
 Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 1-8.​Switching C++ Compilation Modes
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 1-9.​Building with the Boost Library
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 1-10.​Install Microsoft Visual Studio
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Chapter 2:​Modern C++
Recipe 2-1.​Initializing Variables
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 2-2.​Initializing Objects with Initializer Lists
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 2-3.​Using Type Deduction
Problem
 Solution
How It Works
Recipe 2-4.​Using auto with Functions
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 2-5.​Working with Compile Time Constants
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 2-6.​Working with Lambdas
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 2-7.​Working with Time
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 2-8.​Understanding lvalue and rvalue References
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 2-9.​Using Managed Pointers
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Chapter 3:​Working with Text
Recipe 3-1.​Representing Strings in Code Using Literals
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 3-2.​Localizing User-Facing Text
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 3-3.​Reading Strings from a File
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 3-4.​Reading the Data from an XML File
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 3-5.​Inserting Runtime Data into Strings
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Chapter 4:​Working with Numbers
Recipe 4-1.​Using the Integer Types in C++
Problem
Solution
How It Works
 Recipe 4-2.​Making Decisions with Relational Operators
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 4-3.​Chaining Decisions with Logical Operators
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 4-4.​Using Hexadecimal Values
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 4-5.​Bit Twiddling with Binary Operators
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 4-6.​C++20 “Spaceship” or Three-Way Comparison
Operator
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Chapter 5:​Classes
Recipe 5-1.​Defining a Class
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 5-2.​Adding Data to a Class
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 5-3.​Adding Methods
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 5-4.​Using Access Modifiers
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 5-5.​Initializing Class Member Variables
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 5-6.​Cleaning Up Classes
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 5-7.​Copying Classes
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 5-8. Optimizing Code withMove Semantics
Problem
 Solution
How It Works
Recipe 5-9.​Implementing Virtual Functions
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Chapter 6:​Inheritance
Recipe 6-1.​Inheriting from a Class
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 6-2.​Controlling Access to Member Variables and
Methods in Derived Classes
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 6-3.​Hiding Methods in Derived Classes
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 6-4.​Using Polymorphic Base Classes
Problem
Solution
How It Works
Recipe 6-5.​Preventing Method Overrides
Problem
Other documents randomly have
different content
country desolate, but no class was made “with its desolation more
desolate” than the class of country gentlemen. And yet it was among
them that the King had always found his most gallant and
disinterested defenders. It grieved him to the heart when he heard
the tales of the misery in which, among their untilled fields and half-
ruined walls, they were rearing their families. In his coffers there
was not the wherewithal to requite their services, and help them to
cultivate their fields again and rebuild their “gentilhommières.” But
there was something else that could be done for them, and the King
did it. He could give them “Valiant Women”—and he knew in his
heart that the gift was indeed a royal one, and worthy of him—more
precious to those who received it than gold and silver. “Far, and from
the uttermost coasts” was to be the price of those whom Saint-Cyr
was rearing for France.
As I have said, the primary idea was Madame de Maintenon’s, and
it developed successively from a small start at Rueil (1682) with sixty
pupils, through Noisy with its one hundred and twenty-four, to
stately Saint-Cyr with its projected five hundred. Herself a daughter
of the class of smaller landed gentry, she had experienced in her
own person all the sorrows and bitterness, all the temptations and
dangers to which these poor little sisters of her order must inevitably
be exposed—and her thought was to gather as many of them as
possible into shelter from them. With the generous means put at her
disposition she reckoned that she could provide for five hundred
young girls, up to the age of fifteen.
But—and it was the statesmanship of the King that raised the
point—would there really be very much gained by keeping the girls
only until their fifteenth year, and then sending them back to their
families with nothing but a half-finished education to their credit?
Would it not be better to keep them in Saint-Cyr until they were
twenty, and their education complete? With an education such as
was planned for them, and a small dowry to supplement the fortune
it represented, these girls would find no difficulty in securing suitable
“partis,” or being received into convents.
 Madame de Maintenon perceived that this course would be much
better, and she willingly agreed to have the original number of five
hundred pupils reduced to two hundred and fifty. For, as she plainly
saw, it was less a question of gathering in the greatest number of
girls possible, than of conferring a permanent benefit on the whole
kingdom, “by making the foundation a source of pious instruction for
it.” Saint-Cyr was to be the leaven, which, hidden in “three measures
of meal” (being the whole of France), was “to leaven the whole.”
Every girl who left Saint-Cyr, after her thirteen years’ training in all
Christian and womanly virtues and accomplishments, was to be a
centre of education and enlightenment for all those with whom she
should come in contact. In her was to come to life that picture of the
Christian Gentlewoman which Fénélon has painted in immortal
colours, and which M. Octave Gréard has hung in its true place in his
gallery of women:—
“As for me,” he says, in his admirable introduction to the
“Education des Filles,” “I love to picture to myself the young woman,
educated by Fénélon, as he has painted her, in the setting of a
provincial ‘gentilhommière’ he has chosen for her. Up with the dawn,
lest laziness or self-indulgence should gain any hold on her; carefully
planning the employment of her own day, and that of her servants,
and apportioning its various tasks among them with gentle
authority; devoting to her children all the time that is necessary to
learn to know their characters, and to train them in right principles;
her clever hands always busy with some useful piece of needlework;
interesting herself in the business of the farm and the estate, and
missing no opportunity of learning even from the humblest of those
engaged on them; thoughtful for the comforts and wants of her
dependents; founding little schools for poor children, and interesting
her friends in the care of the destitute sick; leading amid solid and
useful occupations, such as these, a full if uneventful existence, and
animating everything about her with the same sentiment of life.”
No one who knows intimately the Catholic women of France can
fail to recognise the type, and in its persistence (which really inspires
a belief in the resurrection of France) must see an overwhelming
justification of the statesmanship of Louis XIV. “What France needs,”
says Père La Chaise, and he spoke for his royal penitent, too, “is not
good nuns—we have enough of them—but good mothers of
families.” It is the glory of Saint-Cyr, from its foundation until it fell
under the axe of Revolution, to have furnished France with them,
and, what is more, to have assured the vitality of the strain in a
degree to which the affairs of France bear witness even to-day.
When at a recent re-union of the “Ligue des Femmes Françaises,”
the Catholic Women’s League of France, we saw the portrait of the
ideal “Femme Française,” drawn by the Marquis de Lespinay, and
recognised, in every gracious detail, its identity with the ideal which
Fénélon formulated, and Saint-Cyr realized, did it not seem, indeed,
that Madame de Maintenon’s prayer had been heard? That Saint-Cyr
will live—in spirit at least—as long as France, and that France will
live—because of it—as long as the world? Vive Saint-Cyr! Puisse-t-il
durer autant que la France, et la France autant que le monde!

She was accustomed to early hours at home, was our little Marie-
Jeanne, being a busy young person, whose usefulness in minding
turkeys, and similar offices, was never questioned in the d’Aumale
household. Accordingly, she was quite wide-awake when, very early
next morning, the shutters were opened, and somebody passed
down the dormitory, pausing at each little white bed to pass the
holy-water to its small occupant, and elicit “Deo Gratiases” of varying
degrees of drowsiness in answer to a very brisk “Benedicamus
Domino.” Some of the “Deo Gratiases” were very, very sleepy—but
certainly not Marie-Jeanne’s. Hers absolutely vibrated with energy,
and the emphatic bump with which she immediately transferred her
small person from bed to floor was but its fitting sequel.
“The dear little one!” said a voice; and Marie Jeanne, interrupting
her toilet, looked up to see a very tall and beautiful lady pass the
asperges to the nun, who had put her lonely little self to sleep last
night, and come and take her in her arms.
 “Shall I send one of the ‘bleues’ to help her to dress, Madame?”
inquired the nun. But the beautiful lady shook her head. “I will help
her, myself,” she told the Sister, “but indeed I think she will not need
much helping.”
She was quite right. Everything that a little girl could reasonably
be expected to do for herself, Marie Jeanne d’Aumale did. But, as
she explained (afterwards, naturally, for she rightly gathered
conversation was not allowed in the dormitory), the uniform of
Saint-Cyr, which she donned this morning for the first time, was not
at all like the style of garment she had been accustomed to wear at
home, and one had to learn the ways of the fastenings.
It was a very pretty uniform, she decided, when she was fully
dressed and ready to survey herself. It consisted of a neat brown
frock, with a cape and apron to match. The apron was bound, in
Marie Jeanne’s case, with a smart red ribbon, which showed, as she
presently learned, that she belonged to the “Rouges,” the division
comprising the youngest in the school, the children between seven
and ten. The “Vertes,” whose apron-ribbon was green, came next in
order of age, being girls between eleven and thirteen. Then came
the “Jaunes,” with their yellow ribbon—girls between fourteen and
sixteen. The “Bleues” were the big girls of the school, and showed
their standing by the blue ribbon which bordered their apron. Little
or big, they all wore pretty white muslin caps on their heads, and
soft white muslin collars round their necks, of the fashion we call
“Puritan.” They were encouraged to do their hair, if modestly, as
becomingly as possible, and a dainty bit of ribbon was supplied
occasionally to help in its adornment. It would appear from an
“Entretien” with the “Vertes” in the year 1703, that Madame de
Maintenon and the Dames de Saint-Louis had occasionally a little
trouble with the “demoiselles” about the way they wore their caps,
which they persisted in putting too far back on their heads, showing
too much hair.
You may be sure that Marie Jeanne’s cap was properly put on—for,
as you have probably guessed already, it was no less a person than
Madame de Maintenon herself who helped her to dress on her first
morning at Saint-Cyr. As we know, she very often came to the house
before the children got up, and was present at their toilet, and had
an eye to the way in which they discharged the household tasks that
were assigned to them.
And now that Marie Jeanne is dressed and we have sufficiently
admired her uniform, I have to ask you whether you would wish to
spend the rest of the day with her and the other “Rouges” here at
Saint-Cyr. If you do (and I can imagine no experience more
profitable for any one interested in little girls and their education), I
shall allow Madame de Maintenon herself to do the honours.
In an instruction to the “Class rouge” in the year 1701, she
describes in great detail how a “reasonable little girl” spends her day
at Saint-Cyr. The “Entretien” is particularly interesting, as enabling us
to reconstruct the programme of the day’s work at the celebrated
“Maison de Saint-Louis.” Nor is it less interesting, as showing
Madame de Maintenon’s methods of instruction. One likes to picture
the Classroom of the “Rouge” for the occasion—a charming big
room, with tall windows looking out on a beautiful park, with
coloured prints and maps on the walls, and fifty-six little girls, in the
uniform I have described, sitting in their benches. One fancies that
they have hurried back from recreation in the park, with more
promptness than usual at the news that Madame is coming to them
to-day. And now the door opens, and they all stand up to receive
her. We can picture her seated on the rostrum, and our little friends
in their places—and the “Entretien” ready to begin. I had forgotten
one detail: At Saint-Cyr they always began a lesson with the
recitation of the “Veni Creator.”
She looks round the eager little faces, and picks one out.
“Mademoiselle de Provieuse,” says Madame, “do you know what is
meant by a ‘reasonable’ little girl?” Now, it is not quite easy to define
in so many words a reasonable little girl, though one may know in
one’s own mind very well what a reasonable little girl is. So
Mademoiselle de Provieuse hesitates, and Madame comes to the
rescue. It appears that “a reasonable person” is simply “a person
who is always doing the right thing at the right time.” That sounds
simple, and every little girl present is interested immediately. It
seems, then, that to be “reasonable”—and if there is one thing every
little Saint-Cyrienne worth her salt wants to be, it is “reasonable”—
one has nothing to do, but to do as well as one possibly can
whatever one is supposed to be doing at any particular time. Let us
see how that works out.
The first thing our “reasonable” little girl does when she awakes in
the morning is to make her Morning Offering—and that she does
with all her heart. Then, when she is called, she gets up immediately
(even though six o’clock seems rather early), dresses herself quickly
and modestly, but as neatly and carefully as she can. After that, if
she has any time to spare, she helps the smaller children to dress,
and takes her share in making beds, tidying up the dormitory,
sweeping, dusting, and polishing. No half-done work for her—
untidily made beds, sweeping that leaves all the dirt in the corners,
or polishing that shows more smears than anything else! No,
whatever a “reasonable” little girl does, she does with all her heart,
and her only pride is in work well done.
The next item in the day’s programme is morning prayers in the
schoolroom. And here our little girl shows how “reasonable” she is
by her devotion and attention. She is not the sort of little girl who
giggles, and whispers, and tries to distract her companions—not she,
for she knows that there is nothing more serious than praying to
God. Prayers are followed by breakfast—and as it is as important to
eat well as it is to do anything else well, nothing pleases Madame
better than to hear of a little girl thoroughly enjoying her breakfast.
It would seem that at Saint-Cyr, there was sometimes permission to
talk at breakfast, while sometimes silence was enforced. Madame de
Maintenon, who likes to give her girls a reason for the rules to which
they are subjected, explains on another occasion (Instruction to the
“Jaunes,” July, 1703) why these times of silence were prescribed:
“The first reason is to teach you to hold your tongues; nothing is so
ugly in a girl as to be always talking, even if she were a genius, and
said the wittiest and cleverest things possible. The Saint-Cyr girls
have always been accused of this fault. Another reason is to give
you time to think, for we know that, if you employ it well, nothing
will contribute so much to your advantage.”
At eight o’clock our little girl goes to Mass (here a hint is slipped in
as to her behaviour in Church—she must see her companions well
seated before taking her own place, and during Mass-time she must
not turn her head to see who is coming out; she must follow the
parts of the Mass with all the respect and devotion of which she is
capable, for nothing is so sacred as the Mass).
Classes occupy the time from 8.30 until 12; and I know you will be
interested to know what our little friend learns at them. The
programme of instruction for the “Rouges” included reading, writing,
and arithmetic, the elements of grammar, Catechism and Bible
History. If she were a little advanced, she could help the others, and
Madame de Maintenon loved to see her little friends doing the
mother to their younger companions. According to her, a little girl
could not too soon begin to make herself useful to others. In an
“Entretien” with the nuns, dated 1701, on the “necessity of avoiding
useless fatigues,” we catch a glimpse of a little girl comfortably
seated, with a little new-comer, to whom she is teaching her “ba bé,”
kneeling at her feet. As Madame de Maintenon is such a disciple of
Fénélon (in matters of education) one is glad to think that the little
Saint-Cyriennes learned their “ba bé,” not in a Latin Psalter, as was
the general habit of the time, but in “the prettily-bound book, with
gilt edges and nice pictures,” which he recommends.
For teaching writing, she certainly adopted his methods: “When
children can read a little, you should make a sort of play for them by
making them form letters.... Children have a natural inclination to
draw figures on paper, and, with the least little bit of help and
direction, they will learn to form letters, and gradually accustom
themselves to write. Then you will say to them: Write me a little
note, or send such and such a piece of news to your brother, or your
cousin.” We know that Madame de Maintenon herself adopted this
method with one of her first pupils, the Duke of Maine. When he
was only five years old she told him one day to write a letter to the
King. “Oh! but I don’t know how to write a letter,” said the little
chap. “Have you nothing in your heart you would like to tell him?” “I
am very sorry he has gone away,” says the little Duke, readily. “Very
well, write that down; nothing could be better. What else?” “Well, I
shall be very, very glad when he comes back.” “There’s your letter
written,” says Madame. “All you have to do is to write it down simply
as you think it, and, if you think amiss, we shall correct you.” It is in
this way, as she told the “Bleues” one day she came to correct their
letters for them, that she taught Monsieur de Maine, “and you
know,” she said, “what beautiful letters he writes now.”
I have not been able to find any indication of how arithmetic was
taught at Saint-Cyr—but its importance for girls had been too
strongly insisted on by Fénélon for it to be neglected. “Girls,” he
says, “should know the four rules—addition, subtraction,
multiplication, and division. You should practice them in these rules
by giving them accounts to make up. Many people find this task a
great burden, but if one is accustomed to it from childhood, and
learns to avail oneself of the help of the rules, to deal quickly with
the most complicated accounts, one loses this distaste.” Very often,
as he points out, good and economical housekeeping depends on
the housekeeper’s exactitude in keeping accounts.
Grammar was taught at Saint-Cyr in the spirit of the “Education
des Filles” by practice in correct writing and speaking, rather than by
rule, “as boys study their Latin Grammar.” Again and again the
importance of speaking “good French” is insisted upon—and we all
know the models that were given them. It was to teach her little
girls to speak the purest and best French that Madame de Maintenon
had them trained to act some of the best plays of Corneille and
Racine. There came a day when these young people “played
‘Andromaque’ so well that they would never play it again—neither it,
nor any other of your pieces,” Madame writes to Racine. She did not
keep her word, fortunately for us, for they were destined to play
“Esther.”
 Part II.
If our visit to Saint-Cyr had been paid in the year 1689, we might
have been in time for a rehearsal of “Esther,” or even (thrilling
thought!) for the famous “fifth” performance, where Madame de
Sévigné sat between Madame de Bagnols and the Maréchal de
Bellefonds, in “the second bench behind the Duchesses,” and
showed her appreciation by an absorbed attention and “certaines
louanges sourdes et bien placées” which had their reward. For the
King was so gratified that he actually came and spoke to her.
“Madame, I am told you like it.” “Sire, what I feel is beyond
expression.” “Said his Majesty to me: ‘Racine is very clever.’ Said I to
him: ‘Indeed, Sire, he is very clever, but these young people are very
clever, too.’” And off she goes for the torchlight drive to Paris,
thinking less, one suspects, of Racine and the “very clever young
people” who acted his piece, than of her own clever self, and the
triumph she had scored over her friends, who were merely
fashionable or pretty.
Alas! Dates are stubborn things, and the date of Marie Jeanne’s
arrival at Saint-Cyr (1690) precludes all possibility of her having been
(for instance) the “youngest of the Israelites” on this occasion, and
peeping out from behind the curtains to see that brilliant audience.
There were many people in France who, if they had been questioned
about the matter, would have said it was just as well for herself. For
it was not the sturdy good sense of the Curé of Versailles, alone,
that was now awake to the danger of turning the heads of the
young actresses; almost everybody who gave any thought to the
matter saw how much justice there was in his blunt criticism that
this was the way to train up theatrical “stars,” not “novices.” The fact
that Saint-Cyr did not primarily set itself to train up “novices,” but
rather good wives and mothers, lessened in no way the force of M.
Hébert’s strictures. And Madame de Maintenon was not slow to
perceive her mistake, and to repair it energetically.
 It happened, accordingly, that it was into a very quiet Saint-Cyr—a
very dull Saint-Cyr, according to the girls, who had lived through the
excitement of the “Esther” performances of the year before—that
Marie Jeanne found herself. Now, one day was exactly like another,
and anybody who knew the time-tables could tell, exactly, what
every little girl in the place was doing at a given hour.
That makes it all the easier for us, who have left Marie Jeanne and
her companions, the Rouges, at their morning lessons, and must
now come back to finish the day with them. The classes are nearly
ended now, and there is a general, and not unpleasant feeling, that
it is getting near dinner-time.
But before going to dine there is something to be done. A little girl
must examine her conscience “to see in what she may have
offended God during the morning, to ask His pardon, and to form
the resolution of doing better, with His help, during the rest of the
day.” The work she has offered to Him, when she awoke in the
morning, is now examined by her, before she hands it in, so to
speak; and the faults and blemishes are, if not repaired, at least
apologised for. “Most particularly does she examine herself to see if
she has fallen into the principal fault from which she has undertaken
to rid herself.” At Saint-Cyr, nobody is considered too young to be
allowed to forget the responsibility she has, as between her own
soul and God.
Dinner-hour is twelve o’clock; and again, as at breakfast, a little
girl is expected to really enjoy her food, and every care is taken to
have it both appetizing and abundant. It is instructive, in this regard,
to find Madame de Maintenon taking the Superior to task when an
occasional retrenchment is attempted. In 1696, she wrote to
Madame du Peron: “Madame, I have always forgotten to ask you
why you continue to give rye bread to the children at a time when
wheat is not dear. It is well for them to learn by their own
experience the ups and downs of life, and they ought to take their
share in the nation’s reverses. But they must go back to their
ordinary régime when there is nothing to prevent it. The tendency of
communities is to retrench in the matter of food rather than in
things that show.” Again speaking to Madame de Glapion, she
returns to the subject, giving her a lesson in true economy, which
not nuns alone, but all housewives, might read with profit. It would
appear that the nuns had not only been pushing their spirit of saving
(in what concerned the girls) to the extreme, but that the work-
mistresses had allowed a certain spirit of commercialism to creep
into their direction of the needlework classes. “Are your girls
sempstresses?” she asks, angrily. “Is it for that the King has
entrusted them to you?” It is far better for them to learn to turn
their hand to all kinds of sewing and mending—family sewing one
might call it—than to be expert mantua-makers. She protests against
the “economy” which savours of meanness and stupidity. “Indeed,
ma sœur, when the big girls have worn their dresses more than a
year, it is too much to expect the same dresses to last as long again
with the little ones. The same remark applies to ever so many other
things, where ‘economy’ has been pushed to such an extreme that I
don’t know where you get material for mending. This is what it
comes to: you keep mending, and darning, and patching,
continually, without reflecting, that if, on the one hand, you save
something, you waste so much silk, and thread and time, on the
other, that there is really nothing gained.” With these liberal
sentiments on the part of its foundress, we may expect to find the
“table” at Saint-Cyr abundant and excellent. It is true it had not a
great name for hospitality to strangers. “Be sure to take your dinner
before you go,” said Madame de Maintenon’s brother one day to
Bourdalone, who was to preach at Saint-Cyr. “Saint-Cyr is, in very
truth, a House of God. One eats not, neither does one drink.” “It is
true,” said Madame de Maintenon, gaily, “our ‘fort’ is education, and
our ‘faible’ is hospitality.” But, it is only fair to Saint-Cyr to add that
what it saved on its guests, it spent very profitably on its inmates. To
one guest it was hospitable, at all events—the little Duchess of
Burgundy. Would you like to know what she had for dinner one day
she spent there? Lobster soup (it was a fast day), eggs, “sur le plat,”
baked sole, gooseberry jelly, cream cakes, brown and white bread,
and fresh butter. It sounds appetizing.
 Dinner was followed by recreation; and to be a “reasonable” little
girl, a little girl after Madame de Maintenon’s own heart, one had to
put as much good will into one’s recreation as into anything else.
She loved to see her girls run about, and dance, and play, and help
their companions to enjoy themselves. But a strange thing had been
reported to her. When they were in the garden, nobody could get
them to move; and when they were in the class-rooms, they were
always complaining of having to sit still so long. “Everything in its
own place, and the garden was the place to run about.”
Such a charming garden, and park, as Saint-Cyr possessed—
designed by the great Mansard, and with the King himself as
sponsor for its poetically-named groves and alleys: Allée de
Réflexions; Allée Solitaire; Allée du Cœur; Cabinet de Recueillement,
and Cabinet Solitaire. If it were not the Comte d’Haussonvilles from
whom I draw this curious piece of information, I should have
inevitably credited Mademoiselle de Scudéry with the choice of these
names. They seem so utterly unlike what we would expect from
Louis XIV. One fancies Madame de Maintenon must have only
accepted them with a sort of resigned amusement. Certainly she had
no intention of allowing the names to justify themselves; for, instead
of the sentimental meditation which they seemed to suggest, she
was all for filling these groves and alleys with the gay laughter and
games of healthy and happy little girls.
In her system of education, recreation played a very important
part—in the first place for its hygienic value. “Let the children run
about in the open air as much as possible,” she is always preaching
to her nuns, “nothing will help them so much to grow tall and
strong.” But, more important still, at no time more frequently than
during recreation does a girl get an opportunity of sacrificing her
own inclinations in order to give pleasure to others—and this is a
lesson no woman can learn too early for her own happiness, if for
nothing else. Moreover, proficiency in games of skill was important
from a social point of view. Everybody—from the Royal Family down
—played those games, and a girl would feel herself at a
disadvantage afterwards if she had not attained some proficiency in
them. Games like “I love my love” had, according to Madame de
Maintenon, the combined merits of making a girl quick-witted, and
giving her subject for reflection. It seems to me that Madame de
Maintenon showed an even greater amount of commonsense than
usual in the answer she gave a nun, who wished to know whether
she approved of the little ones making rag-dolls at recreation, in the
two-fold design of making them handy and amusing them. “Anything
is better than keeping them unoccupied,” is her reply; “but you will
succeed better in making them handy, by employing them at
something genuinely useful. Little girls,” continues this keen student
of girl nature, “usually love to be working, and you cannot make
them happier than by giving them something useful to do. Show
them how to do this right, and you are not only amusing them, but
training them.” I wish every mother would take that lesson to heart.
A little girl of three or four usually develops all of a sudden a great
taste for sweeping, and baking, and washing (washing, particularly).
Now, instead of sending her out to play, a wise mother will seize the
opportunity of showing the little one how to do these things right. I
saw the prettiest sight the other day; it was a laundry lesson to a
tiny girl of three-and-a-half. You never saw such a happy little girl as
the pupil; no game ever invented could hold half the interest for her,
and I am bound to say that she displayed more aptitude than many
a poor girl who came to the work after her ’teens. For my part, I am
convinced that sewing, and sweeping, and washing, are far better
instruments for hand-and-eye training than paper-folding, and
mixing and modelling dough into cakes and scones, while quite as
interesting to children as modelling in clay, has the educational
advantage which anything woven into the genuine web of life has
over what is extraneous to it. And here I may be allowed to remark
that much of the educational unrest, so keenly diagnosed by Dr.
Starkie, is due to the fact that parents, the first and natural teachers,
have in these days a tendency to turn over their children, body and
soul to a professional class—shirking their own duties. Everything
nowadays, is supposed to be taught at school; and the only part
parents take in their children’s education is to criticise the teachers,
and grumble at the results of the system. If parents did their own
share, things would be more satisfactory. And I include among the
parents’ share the duty of teaching cooking, etc., and training the
willing little hands to turn themselves to useful account in the busy
family life around them.
But we have got far away from Marie Jeanne and the “Rouges” of
Saint-Cyr, who, after a jolly recreation in the park, are trooping into
their class-room for the two o’clock “instruction,” which as often as
not, Madame de Maintenon gave herself.
What did she talk about at these “instructions”? “Of everything
under the sun,” one is tempted to exclaim at first, when one turns
over the list of subjects drawn up by Madame de Berval. Books were
rare at Saint-Cyr, especially after the “Reform” of 1691, and it was
from these “instructions” that the girls laid in their provision of
general information. “Do not accustom them to a great diversity of
reading; the seven or eight books which are in use in your house
would do them for all their lives, if they only read for edification.
Curiosity is dangerous and insatiable.” But there are books for which
she makes an exception: “Try to make them love Saint Francis de
Sales; his books are solid and show one how to attain the greatest
perfection, with the utmost courtesy and refinement.” As for herself,
one always feels that the “Introduction à la Vie Dévote” was never
long out of her hands; and she comes to her girls with some of its
chapters fresh in her memory. If to understand the “pedagogy” of
Saint-Cyr, one must have studied Fénélon’s “Education des Filles,” to
understand the whole spirit of the institution, the union of “Religion
and Commonsense,” on which it was founded, one must re-read
Saint Francis de Sales. Sometimes, especially for the bigger girls, the
“Instruction” began with a reading from the “Introduction.” We find
an interesting example in an “Instruction à la Classe Bleue” of
March, 1712.
Madame de Maintenon interrupted the reading to ask
Mademoiselle du Mesnil what she understood by the good-humoured
and generous humility of which St. Francis de Sales spoke. “I
believe,” said the young lady, “that, in this case, the good-humour
would consist in not allowing oneself to be discouraged by the faults,
of which one’s humility forced one to convict oneself; and the
generosity in setting oneself, with all the courage and goodwill
possible, to correct them.” Madame was delighted with the answer,
and went on to point out to the girls the perfection and solidity of
the Spirit of Saint Francis de Sales, “his straightforwardness,
gentleness, and the attractive way he had of leading souls to God.”
“Do you know him well, this Saint, my dear children?”
It appears they did, and Mademoiselle de Conflans proceeds to
show her knowledge (and a fine literary taste, too, it seems to me)
in the quotation she chooses from him, at Madame de Maintenon’s
request. It is from that admirable chapter on “the manner of
practising true poverty in the midst of riches” (Part III., Chapter XV.),
and Mademoiselle de Conflans quotes it almost literally: “Tell me, are
not the gardeners of great princes more concerned to cultivate and
beautify the gardens they have in charge, than if they were their
own? And why is that? Because, doubtless, they look on those
gardens as belonging to the kings and princes, with whom they wish
to gain favour by their services. My Philothea, the possessions we
have are not ours.” (At this point, Mademoiselle de Conflans ceases
to quote but paraphrases admirably.) “They are but given to us by
God, to be managed for His glory, for our salvation, and for the good
of our neighbour. As long as these ends are kept in view, we please
God by looking well after our worldly possessions....”
“Suppose, Mademoiselle,” continues Madame, “then that you were
married (she taught them, as we shall see presently, not to be afraid
to mention the word marriage at Saint-Cyr), and that you had plenty
of money, what would you do?” “I should feed and clothe my
children well,” says Mademoiselle (who had not studied her Francis
de Sales for nothing); “I should pay my debts; I should help my poor
neighbours; I should take care of people who were ashamed to ask
assistance; and I should visit and assist the sick poor in the
hospitals.” “All that is excellent,” comments Madame, approvingly,
“but among all these different kinds of charity, preference is to be
given to that exercised towards your own poor tenants and poor
relations. But if you met with some financial reverses, would it be
right to borrow money to keep up your charities?” Mademoiselle de
Chaunac gives it as her opinion that it would. “If you really think it
would be right to borrow money to keep up one’s charities you are
very much mistaken. One’s first duty is towards one’s own children
and servants.”
That is good sense and justice, and the religion that was taught in
Saint-Cyr was never separated from one or the other. “Make them
see that true piety consists in the fulfilment of one’s duties; let them
learn those of a wife and of a mother, their obligations towards their
servants, the edification they owe to their neighbours, and what sort
of a life they can and ought to lead in the world.” She was never
tired, when talking to the girls, of contrasting true devotion with
wrong-headed “voteenism.” She defined the latter by its
manifestations: leaving the Blessed Sacrament to go to pray before a
statue; leaving one’s class to say extra prayers; putting one’s head
against the wall, for fear of allowing one’s devotion to evaporate,
and being quite annoyed if one is interrupted, for something quite
necessary; waiting an hour outside the confessional for “contrition”
to fall from heaven, and then saying you don’t feel like going to
confession, for you have not the proper sorrow for your sins;
spending a lot of money on ornaments for the chapel and leaving
your sisters in want; employing at prayer much more time than is
marked out, and thereby neglecting the duties of your charge. “True
piety, ‘devotion in the spirit of Saint François de Sales,’” as she calls
it somewhere, “is, on the contrary, solid, simple, good-humoured,
sweet, and free, consisting rather in innocence of life than in
austerities and frequent retreats. When an educated woman misses
vespers to stay with her sick husband, everybody will approve; when
she holds the principle that we must honour our father and mother,
however bad they may be, nobody will laugh; when she maintains
that it is better for a woman to rear her children well, and train her
servants, than to pass the whole morning in her oratory, people will
easily accommodate themselves to that religion, and she will make it
loved and respected.”
 To prepare her girls for that exact fulfilment of duties which,
according to her (and Saint Francis), is the best sign of true piety,
she adopted two great means. The first was to train them to an
exact observance of present duties. She was always preaching to
them the honour and glory of work well done. It is a matter of pride
to be able to sweep, and dust, and mend well, and, far from being
ashamed of doing these things, a girl ought to be proud to be seen
by everybody at them. But what of a girl who does not care in the
least how her work is done, provided she gets through it some way
or other? Madame de Maintenon has an ugly name for such little
girls, and she does not hesitate to apply it: Coward! There was
surely a terrible sting in the word, for girls of noble birth, with a long
tradition of soldierly honour in their families. One fancies the lash of
it made them turn to their sweeping, and dusting, and polishing with
more zeal than the fear of punishment would have done. She likes
her girls to remember they are noble, provided they show
themselves worthy of their birth. “In the world, nobility is recognised
by its true politeness; it loves to give pleasure, to spare trouble, to
relieve pain. If one of you were forced to take a position with some
individual, and could not bring yourself to do it, preferring to spend
the whole day working to earn the necessaries of life, I could not
blame her. If another received a proposal of marriage from a man of
low birth, and she answered me, ‘I cannot overcome the
disinclination I feel to it,’ I would pity her for refusing a match which
might make her happy, but I should not find it strange, for these are
inclinations common to the nobility. If I should hear a girl say, ‘I
would rather a thousand times see my brother dead than hear that
he had run away from the enemy, and is a coward’—a noble heart
spoke there, and I feel the same as you. If some of you said, ‘I
would rather wear homespun all my life than receive presents,’ I
should say, ‘these are girls who feel their nobility, and are true to it.’”
In the meantime, they can prove their nobility in no way better than
the care they take to fulfil their daily duties exactly. In interesting
their sense of honour, Madame de Maintenon shows her knowledge
of girl nature, grafted on a good stock.
 For the future, she looks forward, picturing vividly the life that
awaits them. What matter if the picture be not very gay? It is well to
face the truth, and teach her girls to be prepared for it. Most of
them will marry; she hopes so, at all events, and in some cases goes
out of her way to provide them with husbands. “What Saint-Cyr
wants,” she says on one occasion, “is sons-in-law.” To all of them she
repeats the advice she gave a girl, on leaving: “Either marry, or
become a nun; don’t be an old maid.” She was more angry than ever
her nuns remembered having seen her, one day she heard that they
would not mention the word “marriage,” and that when they came
to it in the Catechism, they passed it over. “What! a Sacrament,
instituted by Jesus Christ, which He has honoured by His presence,
the obligations of which are detailed by His apostles, and must be
taught by you to your girls, cannot be named! That is what turns
into ridicule the education given in convents. There is far more
immodesty in this affectation than there is in talking of what is really
innocent. When they have passed through matrimony, they will find
there is nothing to laugh at in it. You must accustom them to speak
of it very seriously, even sadly; for I believe it is the state of life in
which one experiences the most tribulations, even in the happiest
marriage.”
She herself speaks of it to the girls often, and seriously—and, if
the truth must be told, too sadly. It was not quite fair to take her
own experience as typical. Shall I be accused of a frightful heresy,
too, if I judge her teaching that a woman should yield her taste and
her judgment in all things to a husband (no matter how absurd and
fanatical he may be) as extremely unwholesome?
The needlework lesson which followed the “Instruction” was
considered among the most important of the day’s programme. “Try
to give the girls a taste for work,” is a recommendation which is
always recurring in Madame de Maintenon’s letters. Nor was it only
for its direct practical application that she valued it for her girls. She
wanted them, it is true, to be able to turn their hands to anything:
“to pass from new to old, from fine to coarse, from dresses to
underwear, caps and coifs.” But she knew, long before Lady Henry
Somerset, the extraordinary comfort there is in the use of the hands.
In a wonderfully suggestive article by Maude Egerton King in the
“Vineyard,” Lady Henry Somerset’s discovery is recorded: “Who has
not heard of Lady Henry Somerset and the help she has discovered
for poor women drunkards in the use of their hands? She tells us
how domestic grief brings desire for forgetting, and how this is most
easily bought in poisonous drink—poor substitute, indeed, for the
keen interest of handwork and the consolation found in its conquest
of things.” “There was comfort in carding the wool, solace in the
spinning-wheel, decision in the exacting shuttle as it flew to escape
the batten and reed.” Madame de Maintenon had tasted in many
hours of spirit weariness the solace of the busy hand: “nothing is
more necessary for our sex than the love of work; it calms the
passions, it occupies the mind, and filling up the time pleasantly,
leaves one no leisure for evil thoughts. What is a woman to do who
cannot bear to stay at home, or find pleasure in her household
employments, or interest in a bit of needlework. What can she do
but seek it at the theatre, or the card-table?” No wonder that next to
piety, and reason, she values needlework as an instrument of
education.
There is a singing lesson yet to be gone through, and a catechism
lesson, before the supper and recreation, night prayers and
examination of conscience which end the day at Saint-Cyr. Whether
the girls have a voice or not, she likes them to join the singing-class.
“Even if they cannot sing, they will know something about it, and
take pleasure in it,” she tells the “Vertes” on one occasion, and goes
on to impress them with the necessity of letting slip no opportunity
of learning anything likely to be useful. “Look at me,” she says, “who
found no talent so useful at Court as to be able to do hair well!”
At the Catechism Classes she likes the girls to question one
another, but she had no patience with budding casuists, who made
difficulties to show their own cleverness. Did she scold the little
Duchess of Burgundy who, one day, doing Catechist to the “Bleues,”
on being asked, “Where is the Valley of Jehosaphat?” covered her
own ignorance by the scorn she poured on the questioner? “That’s a
sensible question, indeed, Mademoiselle; and you have great need
of knowing it in order to get to Heaven.” I do not think so. With
Fénélon (whose precept in this particular was so much better than
his practice) she held that women have not the brains for the
subtleties of Theology or Philosophy. “Women only know things by
halves” (here she repeats Fénélon’s very words), “and the little they
know renders them proud, disdainful, talkative, and disgusted with
common things.” “I would much prefer to see your girl occupied with
your house-steward’s accounts than with the disputes of the
Theologians,” Fénélon had said, and Madame de Maintenon
(especially after the Quietist troubles, when even the “Rouges”
talked of nothing else but “pure love,” “holy indifference,”
“simplicity,” and all the other jargon of Madame Guyon’s letters) took
the lesson to heart.
And now to conclude. In a letter to the “Dames de Saint Louis” of
February, 1706, she sums up the whole aim of the education of
Saint-Cyr, and nothing gives a more faithful picture of its ideal than
her words:—
“Let all your instructions, conversations, reprimands, punishments,
rewards, relaxations, be employed to make your girls virtuous, pure,
modest, discreet, silent, reliable, kind, just, generous, lovers of
honour, of good faith and probity, giving pleasure in all that is
possible, hurting no one’s feelings, bearing peace everywhere, never
repeating aught but what will please and reconcile. Thirteen years
are not too long, my dear sisters, to train them up, and form them
to so many good things.”
Thirteen years are certainly not too long—nor a whole life!
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