the place made beautiful by her pre-Jean Jacques felt were cast upon himsence. But how was he, so young, to self. He desired to address her, but exist in exile from his country? At during the whole time she remained in Auncey there was clearly no chance of this place no opportunity ever came for success. So, in spite of resolution, he a word to be exchanged between them. must depart thence. Whither to go it was The assembly on this occasion was to not so easy to see. Nevertheless, with welcome the new arrival. A short relithe counsel of his friends he left for gious exhortation was pronounced; the Turin. There he proposed to enter a virgins retired to their cells, and the college of the Catechumens, where he Genevese fugitive was left at leisure to might employ himself and gain the marvel at the phantasies he had beheld. object he desired. On the way a thou- To this seclusion Rousseau came with sand brilliant visions played before his a mind considerably imbued with reliview. Italy to him appeared the created gion. Apostate he was in profession, if ideal of romance. He thought of her not in spirit, yet there was the sentipalaces, ringing for ever with festal ment in his breast, ready to become a sounds; of her lawns, bright with Boc-vitalising principle. But the neophytes caccio's vigils; of her lakes, her baths, who now surrounded him created an her marbles, that rival the pure snowy atmosphere by no means congenial to shafts quarried from Pentelicus; and the growth of genuine piety. They her pictures, excelling the tints of were inclined to submit, he to discuss. nature. He thought of alluring beauty Yet he had a force of character which in her cities, and in her woods of volup- prevented his cringing with an inteltuous reveries. His ideas dilated as he lectual servility to every dogma, of his passed the Alps, where Hannibal had instructors; when, therefore, the first hewed his way; and leaving the Swiss "conference" was held, he observed mountains for the serene and balmy with some surprise, that the disciples climate of the south, a delicious ener- answered as though to a catechism, and vation relaxed the inmost fibre of his controverted none of the priests' asserframe. In this tone of mind he reached tions. It came to his turn. ImmediTurin, with the fumes of ambition in ately his early studies strengthened him his brain, and every faculty of soul and for a debate. He at once checked the sense absorbed by anticipations of the friar and argued against him. Nor future. was he a weak antagonist. The father Madame de Warens and his other saw this, and fenced adroitly, pretendfriends of Auncey had paid his expenses ing that he was imperfectly acquaintto the Piedmontese capital; but he had ed with the French language. Next now nothing left-no money, no clothes, day, however, to prevent such a danand no prospects, but within the narrow gerous display before the other pupils, bounds of a monastery, Thither, how- Rousseau was put into a separate chamever, he boldly went, and was at onceber with a younger priest, and more skiladmitted. The sight fell blank upon ful rhetorician, who scaled every diffihis eyes. A ponderous door, with por-culty with a long phrase, though even tentous bars of iron, opened, as it were he found the young philosopher apt at to engulf him, in a hall, at one end of all the weapons it had hitherto been his which a gigantic crucifix loomed out of own peculiar pride to employ. the two lights upon a wooden altar. Four or five hard grim chairs were placed around, with as many men, with the appearance of banditti, who seemed, to the imagination of Rousseau, so many familiars of the infernal Power. Two of them were said to be Jews, or Moors, pilgrims from the ancient haunts of the race in Spain. Another door of iron was then swung back, and through this entered the sisterhood-a train of the most slatternly creatures that ever came within the pale of a church. There was only one either young or pretty. She had large speaking eyes, which

At length, after a sufficient probation, Rousseau solemnly abjured the Protestant faith, and was formally received into the bosom of the Holy Roman Church. On the threshold of this iniquity he trembled, and he shuddered again when a father inquisitor required him to utter his belief that his mother had been damned; but he evaded this point, and while the monks were grimacing, received absolution for the heresy of his earlier years. Then with twenty francs of money in his possession he was placed outside the door of the College, exhorted to be a good Christian,

and left to fall in with the crowding the Tyrrhene and the Adriatic seas;-— ranks of the worst part of humanity he was now a liveried menial, humble perpetually pouring along the earth, to among the proud, indignant among the fill up the chasms which wars, and happy, yet often debasing himself to the plagues, and the course of centuries level of his poor condition. In the make in the population of the world. histories of most men we lament the He had imagined that once under the conduct of the world; in that of Rousshelter of the Church a broad approach seau we lament his conduct to himself. to honour and to fame had been opened For, assuredly, many as his misfortunes to him, but these hopes were in a mo- were, vitiating as were the influences ment eclipsed. He had signed the bond, that presided over his youth, bitter as and they who profited by it immediately was the malice of his enemies, and cast him adrift to see how his prose- chill as was the sympathy of those who lytism would avail him in the battle of called themselves his friends, Rousseau, life. it cannot be concealed, was his own chief foe. Had he never had a worse, the most melancholy episodes of his career might never have excited the pity of mankind. And this suggests a curious reflection. We commiserate the poets, who, like Grecian Keats perished the victims of others; but we still more deeply commiserate men, who like the political prophet of Geneva, lingered the victims of their own follies and unreined desires.

Rousseau remained some while floating about Turin, living frugally, regaling his sight with its pageants, palaces, and monuments of art, and sipping now and then the sweets of some romantic adventure. In his conception of the character of women, he had idealized a creature too fanciful, and, if I may so speak, too picturesque for the intercourse of common life; but in his own behaviour towards them there was a blending of childish fear with vanity, volup- In the household of the Countess-a tuousness, and respect. No beautiful Madame de Sévigné, reduced to pigmy woman could approach him without proportions-Rousseau found the eletroubling his breast with strong emo- ments of happiness to an ordinary mind. tions; he always was friendly with The lady was beautiful, cultivated, gentle her, and never succeeded in becoming in her manners, kind in her disposition, more than a poetical lover. Sometimes and intellectually developed to an apan indiscretion put him in peril; some-preciation of the true spirit of virtue. Totimes a folly caused him to curse him- wards her young servitor she behaved self, but he was one who learned from with affable dignity. When he showed experience. Ignorant with all his ac- her the letters which he wrote to Maquirements, improvident in spite of dame de Warens, describing the progress probation, he was a very butterfly, re- of his fortune and the state of his feelvelling now in the light of ethereal day-ings, she questioned him coldly, and he dreams, and now counting sous to as- answered her with reserve; gradually certain his chances of a dinner. even this little discourse ceased, and Rousseau was no more than the merest servant.

Even Jean Jacques, however, must find a means of livelihood. He could not exist on the gifts of an ideal future. Therefore he sought employment, and his friends found it for him. The Countess de Vercellis required a lacquey. Rousseau became one, only distinguished from the other servants by wearing no epaulettes. This, then, was the realization of all his burning desires for elevation and renown. He who had wrought his mind to raptures with the eloquence of Tully, who had soared with Hyperion into the upper realms of Heaven, who had throbbed with anger for the usurpation of the Cæsars, and cultivated with every grace of learning, aspired to rise through the splendours of Italy as a star conspicuous between

There was, however, a species of insanity allaying the intellect of this strange adventurer. There was within his reach an old piece of rose-coloured ribbon, to which an infatuated fancy attracted him. He stole it. There was an inquiry. It was found in his possession. The Countess asked him how he had obtained it? What then did the future preacher of the noble ethics of the Contrat Sociale do? With a cowardice scarcely to be accounted for in one who afterwards gave voluntarily a most humiliating confession to the world, in one who braved every persecution by boldly avowing his opinions, he sought to exculpate himself by a device of which

the meanest thieves have been ashamed. known had their names not been reThere was a fair young damsel in the corded by his pen. The Count de house, bred amongst the mountains of Gouvon was his new master; and MadeSavoy, and upon her Rousseau laid the moiselle de Breil his mistress. She was accusation. All the people of the place young, beautiful, fair, with black hair, were assembled. She was brought face and was exquisitely formed. To gain to face with him. With an effrontery her notice, Rousseau was day and night marvellous to reflect upon, he charged her devising schemes; but she continued in with having stolen the piece of ribbon, the haughty seclusion of her tutored and presented it to him. For a moment pride, never deigning to cast a look on astonishment rendered her speechless, the young man waiting to obey even an but immediately with the clear front of intelligible look. At length, however, honesty she refuted the calumny, ex- an opportunity occurred. One day, at horted Rousseau not to dishonour an the dinner-table, a philological disinnocent girl who had never wronged cussion arose. There was a difficult him, turned on him a look which might question raised, which the combined have melted a worse man, and when she resources and learning of all the savans found he was implacable, broke into pas- present were not sufficient to unravel. sionate tears. "Ah, Rousseau," she Jean Jacques was observed to smile. said, "I thought good of you; you have This was noticed. His master asked brought misery on me, but, nevertheless, him if he had anything to say. Then, I would not be in your place." What modestly, but with manly confidence, he was the fate of poor Marion, thus slan- developed, with artistic brevity, his dered, never was known. It may have theory on the point under investigation, been happy; but it may have been, clearing off the obscurity which had perthrough this loss of reputation, infa- plexed them all. The company were mous and terrible. How bitter must astonished, and gazed upon Rousseau have been the pains of remorse for with silent admiration. To only one such a crime; and how much must it face, however, was his inquiry directed. not have cost to make the degrading It was to that of Mademoiselle de Breil. revelation. And when he saw that she was smiling upon him with an air of wonder and respect, he felt a pride that could not have been more genuine, had he been crowned laureate in the Academy of France. It was to him one of those During this period we see him, in his moments which level the distinctions of own record, the strange being whom no men, and carry them back to the kinlessons could instruct, and to whom the dred sources of their blood. Soon after, history of human nature scarcely sup- the noble beauty asked him, in an affaplies a parallel. Unquiet, distracted, ble, timid tone, for a glass of water. dreaming, he was, by turns, overpow- While obeying her, such a trembling ered by every emotion without compre- passed through his frame, that he sprinkhending why. Sometimes he sighed, led her plate, and even her clothes. sometimes he shed tears. He sighed Her brother roughly asked why he for a good which he was unable to imagine; he shed tears over some sorrow which he could not define. Most men know what they desire, and taste in fancy the anticipated joy. With him Here, however, where we seem to be it was not so. His warm blood beat unfolding a new romance, the episode through his veins exciting strange, concludes. So far from obtaining the shapeless wishes; his thoughts dwelt smiles of Mademoiselle de Breil, Rouson beauty, and, at times, his whole seau could not secure the favour of frame was thrilled by feelings which her waiting-maid. Nevertheless, his passed away unremembered, before he could interpret them to himself.

The Countess soon afterwards died, and Rousseau, turning to the dwelling of a humble friend, remained there five or six weeks, while he awaited the next accident of his life.

Influenced by this curious susceptibility, he again entered a noble's service, and waited at table behind the chairs of men whom posterity would never have

shook so; but looking at the girl herself, Rousseau perceived that she had crimsoned to the brow, and was in an agitation scarcely less than his own.

literary achievement gained him the respect of his master; and from the situation of lacquey, he rose to that of secretary. Every one in the palace, too, appeared anxious to promote his welfare. But the caprice of his dispo

L

sition, impelling now to one object, now classics the occupations of a sensual to another, and then forward without mind. A peculiarity in his nature seems any object at all, prevented him from to have added to the force of tendencies reaping all the advantages which he derived from early education. He posmight have derived from his success in sessed an extreme keenness of feeling, the Piedmontese capital. On a slight but was equally slow in his reflections. excuse he left Turin, or rather escaped His ideas arranged themselves in his from it, and made his way back to An- brain with incredible difficulty; while necy. Madame de Warens' mansion, his emotions, once stirred, flowed in an was, of course, his goal. Approaching instant to the very brim and became his it, a trembling seized his limbs, a mist master. On this account, he always fell over his eyes, his breath became wrote very laboriously-all his manuheavy, and he passed old friends without scripts being copied four or five times the capacity to recognise them. It was before going to the press. Sometimes not that he feared blame, that he he sat down five or six evenings followdreaded to be cast out desolate on the ing, with the paper before him, without world, or that the prospect of little penning a single word; but when he did vicissitudes terrified him. That lady begin, and his finished production lay of the chateau was to him the Ægeria ready for printing, what an harmonious, of another Numa, and he advanced fluent, inspired combination of sweettowards her presence with an awe equal ness and power did it appear to be! to that which the mythical heroes are "Easy writing," says Pope, “is decirepresented to have experienced when dedly hard reading;" and so with Jean drawing near the shrines of their pro- Jacques, his most painful elaborations tecting divinities. are among the master-pieces of light, running, and aerial diction. There is nothing of superior modulation to his "Reveries," in the spiritual songs of Racine. In the "Letters from the Moun tain," the style is elegant, sublime, and rich; while it is so pure, that Quintilian himself might have selected it as a model.

Once in the presence of Madame de Waren, all Rousseau's fearful emotions ceased. His heart rose at the sound of her voice; he bent before her and kissed her hand. "Poor fellow," she said, "are you come back again?" and then she made him relate his adventures, telling him, at the conclusion, that he might occupy a chamber in her house. He was established, therefore, at Annecy, in an extraordinary position, partly that of a son, partly of a friend. The lady called him Petit, he called her Maman, and this continued even when the lapse of years had almost effaced the difference between their ages. At that early period, however, the sanctitude of this most beautiful relation of life was well preserved. If Madame de Warens kissed and otherwise caressed Rousseau, it was truly as a mother; and if he reciprocated her tenderness, it was with the affection of a son. Afterwards, there came a new phase of their intercourse; but it will too soon be time to speak of it.

The fatal malady of his passions, however, continued to corrupt the whole nature of Rousseau. While the baroness watched over him in this seductive pupilage, directed his readings, cultivated his ideas, taught him music, and in many ways aided in developing that mighty intellect which soon began to throw its rays over France, he secretly insulted her, while he degraded himself, mixing up with the study of the modern

This digression left Rousseau happy in the dreams of beauty which he en joyed under the roof of his protectress at Annecy. There he remained some time, when accidental occurrences sepa rated him from his friend, and he tra velled about Switzerland with a pretended Greek Bishop, who said he was making collections for the guardians of the Holy Sepulchres, and for whom he acted as secretary. At Soleure, the adventures of this impostor were cut short by an arrest, but the French ambassador took care of Rousseau, gave him money, and enabled him to reach Paris, where the Baroness de Warens was said to be staying. The capital had been to him what Rome is to the devotees of the Catholic church-a city of triumph for the great, of hope for the humble, of glory and splendour for the ambitious, with a fire of genius in their minds. Thither, therefore, he went, burning with expectation, and thirsting to renew the happiness of an intercourse with the delightful recluse of Annecy. But to his surprise and grief she was no longer there.