The key to Mademoiselle de l’Enclos’ character is to be found in her toleration and liberality.  Utterly unselfish, she had no thoughts beyond the comfort and, happiness of her friends.  For them she sacrificed her person, an astounding sacrifice in a woman, one for which a multitude have suffered martyrdom for refusing to make, and are cited as models of virtue to be followed.  Yet, notwithstanding her strange misapplication or perversion of what the world calls “female honor,” her world had nothing but the most profound respect and admiration for her.  It requires an extremely delicate pencil to sketch such a character, and even then, a hundred trials might result in failing to seize upon its most vivid lights and shades and bring out its best points.

Standing out clearly defined through her whole life was a noble soul that never stooped to anything common, low, debasing or vulgar.  Brought up from infancy in the society of men, taught to consider them as her companions and equals, and treated by them as one of themselves, she acquired a grace and a polish that made her society desired by the proudest ladies of the court.  There is no one in the annals of the nations of the earth that can be compared to her.  The Aspasia of Pericles has been regarded by some as a sort of prototype, but Aspasia was a common woman of the town, her thoughts were devoted to the aggrandizement of one man, her love affairs were bestowed upon an open market.  On the contrary, Mademoiselle de l’Enclos never bestowed her favors upon any but one she could ever after regard as an earnest, unselfish friend.  Their friendship was a source of delight to her and she was Epicurean, in the enjoyment of everything that goes with friendship.

Saint-Evremond likens her to Leontium, the Athenian woman, celebrated for her philosophy and for having dared to write a book against the great Theophrastus, a literary venture which may have been the reason why Saint-Evremond gave Ninon the title.  Ninon’s heart was weak, it is true, but she had early learned those philosophical principles which drew her senses away from that portion of her soul, and her environments were those most conducive to the cultivation of the senses which are so easily led away into seductive paths.  But however far her love of pleasure may have led her, her philosophical ideas and practices did not succeed in destroying or even weakening any other virtue.  “The smallest fault of gallant women,” says de la Rochefoucauld, “is their gallantry.”

The distinguished Abbe Chateauneuf expresses a trait in her character which drew to her side the most distinguished men of the period.

“She reserved all her esteem, all her confidence for friendship, which she always regarded as a respectable liaison,” says the Abbe, “and to maintain that friendship she permitted no diminution or relaxation.”