“ Constant’s political career was spoiled by his liaison with Madame de Staël, and at the Restoration was further disturbed by his unreturned passion for Madame Récamier. His defects as a debater were not compensated entirely by the excellence of his set speeches; but his wide culture and powerful intellect were bound to leave their mark on affairs. His political inconsistencies were more apparent than real, for there was no break in his advocacy of Liberal principles. ”

“ He returned to Switzerland in 1786, and in the next year visited Paris, where he met Madame de Charriére, a Dutchwoman who had married into a Swiss family with which his own was connected. Madame de Charriére, although twenty-seven years older than Constant, became his mistress, and the liaison, an affair possibly more of the intellect than of the heart, lasted until 1796, when Constant became intimate with Madame de Staël. ”

“ Constant, who had met Madame de Staël at Lausanne in 1794, followed her in the next year to Paris, where he rapidly became a personage in the moderate republican circle which met in her salon; and by 1796 he had established with her intimate relations, which, in spite of many storms, endured for ten years. ”