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MAINE DE BIKAN MAINTENON 39 dee, and Loire-Inf erieure ; area, 2,750 sq. m. ; pop. in 1872, 518,471. It belongs to the basin of the Loire, by which it is annually inundated ; the other principal rivers are the Maine, Loir, Sarthe, Mayenne, and Oudon. The surface is almost level, with slight undulations, and the soil very fertile, producing grain, wine, and fruits. Iron is found, and slate quarries are extensively worked. It has excellent breeds of cattle and horses. The principal manu- factures are of linen, especially table linen and handkerchiefs, flannels, and cotton. It has a considerable trade in grain, wine, brandy, and cattle. It is divided into the arrondissements of Angers, Bauge, Cholet, Saumur, and Segre. Capital, Angers. MAINE DE BIRAN, Francois Pierre Gonthier, a French metaphysician, born at Grateloup, near Bergerac, Nov. 29, 1766, died in Paris, July 16, 1824. He entered the body guard of Louis XVI. in 1784, and was at Versailles during the tumults of Oct. 5 and 6, 1789, but lived in re- tirement during the revolution. In 1797 he was chosen to the council of 500, from which he was excluded on suspicion of royalism, and under the empire became sub-prefect of the department of Dordogne at Bergerac, and a member of the legislative body. In 1813 he was one of the commission appointed to draw up an address to the emperor, which for the first time manifested a decided opposition to his policy. After the restoration he was re- elected to the chamber of deputies, became a councillor of state in 1816, and from 1818 retained his seat in the legislature, in which he constantly maintained the prerogatives of the crown. In a memoir entitled Influence de Vlidbitude sur la faculte de penser^ which ob- tained the prize of the institute in 1803, he prepared for his departure from the reigning philosophy of Condillac by maintaining a dis- tinction between active and passive mental habits, according to which the mind is active in perception and passive in mere sensation. In his second memoir, Sur la decomposition de lapensee (1805), he abandoned the effort to give a physiological origin to thought, sug- gested that sensation could not furnish the active and motive element in man, and was dis- posed to admit a principle of intelligence dis- tinct from the organism. This work was rapidly followed by others, the most important of which was the Examen des lecons de M. de Laromiguiere (1817), in which he completely passes from sensational to spiritual philosophy, and develops his own system, which caused Koyer-Collard to say of him : " He is the master of us all." A complete edition of his works was edited by Cousin (4 vols., Paris, 1841). See Naville, Maine de JSiran, sa vie et ses pensees (Paris, 1857). MAOiTENON, Fraiif ofce d'Aubigne, marchioness de, second wife of Louis XIV. of France, born in Niort, Nov. 27, 1635, died at St. Cyr, April 15, 1719. She was the daughter of Constant d'Aubigne and Jeanne de Cardillac, and grand- daughter of Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigne", the Huguenot historian of his time, and the friend and companion of Henry IV. Constant d'Au- bigne, after dissipating his fortune, formed a project for establishing himself in the Carolinas. His correspondence on this subject with the English government was discovered and treat- ed as treason, and he was imprisoned in the chateau Trompette at Bordeaux, of which his father-in-law was the keeper. After the death of the latter he was removed to the concier- gerie of Niort, his wife voluntarily sharing his imprisonment, and there Franchise was born. In 1639 Constant d'Aubigne' was discharged from prison, and with his wife and children emigrated to Martinique, where for a while he prospered ; but he gambled away what he acquired, and died in 1645 in complete poverty. His widow with her children returned to France, and Francoise was confided to the care of her father's sister, Mme. de Villette, a Cal- vinist, who trained her in the principles of the Protestant faith. Mme. d'Aubigne", alarmed at her daughter's refusal to attend mass, pro- cured an order restoring the girl to her own custody, and placed her as an inmate, in a de- pendent and almost menial position, in the house of her godmother, the countess de Neuil- lant, who after a while, and with some diffi- culty, converted her from Calvinism to Ca- tholicism. The comic poet Scarron, who was paralytic and a cripple, lived in the same street with the countess de Neuillant, became inter- ested in the young, beautiful, and intelligent girl, whose adventures had been related to him, and offered money to enable her to enter a convent, which poverty had hitherto prevented her from doing. Franchise refused the offer, and shortly afterward the countess de Neuillant placed her in an Ursuline convent, permitting her occasionally to visit her house, where she often met Scarron. Two years afterward, at the age of 16, she was without a home, her mother was dead, and she consented to become the wife of the deformed Scarron, to whom she was married in June, 1652. She was at this time exceedingly beautiful, graceful, and witty, and the house of Scarron soon became the resort of the most brilliant intellects of Paris. Scarron died in October, 1660, leaving his young widow nearly penniless, his pension ceasing at his death. Mme. Scarron petitioned for the reversion of her husband's pension, with small hope of success till Mme. de Mon- tespan, the king's mistress, hearing of her des- titution, interfered in her behalf, procured her an annual allowance of 2,000 francs, and in 1669 made her the governess of the children she had had by Louis XIV., much to the dissat- isfaction of the king, who at first did not like the extreme gravity and reserve of the young widow. Her talents and wisdom, however, soon attracted his attention, and she became his confidant and adviser, was made a mar- chioness, and took the name of Maintenon from an estate at Versailles which the king purchased