276 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, xix 



[AUGUST 12, 1886, DOWN.] 



I fotind a deskful of old letters which I had quite forgotten, 

 and which I should have been very sorry not to have. It is 

 a sad feeling in reading old letters that I have no one to 

 sympathise in such old memories. 



Aug. 22, 1886. 



I am very much interested in Morley's Life of Rousseau. 

 My (TEpinay l lore makes me so much au fait to all that 

 time. Morley does not gloss over any of his crimes or 

 odiousness. He constantly quotes the Confessions as if he 

 believed in them, and I am surprised at Rousseau's word 

 going for anything where vanity comes in. 







I have finished Morley's Rousseau, also St Beuve's review 

 of Mme d'fipinay's Memoirs, in which he entirely ignores 

 the horrible indecencies, which I call very immoral. He 

 ought to consider himself as a sort of sign-post for the public. 

 Morley's sense of morality and propriety is very strong, and 



he glosses over nothing. 



DOWN, Sept. 22nd, 1886. 



Gwen is a most remarkable and interesting child, so 

 intent, and watching one's face, not like some busy and 

 animated children who are so intent on their own aims they 

 never look at you not merry at all. 



My mother always had the babies to come and see her 

 in her bedroom and play on her bed before she got up. Their 

 game was to have a little tea-service set out on her bed- 

 table, which was called playing with her " poticles." With 

 her knowledge and experience it was inevitable that she 

 did not always see eye to eye with the different young 

 mothers. But she hardly ever interfered or offered any 

 advice. For instance, in one family she was constantly 

 uneasy about the perambulator, which she thought too 

 draughty for winter use, and she more than once discussed 

 with me whether she might venture to give another, but 

 wisely refrained. This self-control and discretion made 

 her relations to her daughters-in-law absolutely serene. 

 They all felt a daughterly love for her, which she warmly 



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1 Memo-ires et Correspondance de Madame d'Epinay (1726 83). 



