KOUSSEAU 



CalvinkUc vagrant By her he wa hospitably 

 received and then transmitted to a hospice in Turin 

 tillml with Home fellow -catchu men* ; and Boon in- 

 in. i-,. ! into tlie faith ainl <lnly lupti--d. he was 

 discharged with a few franca in IIIH pocket. He 

 in vain sought work as an engraver, till a shop 

 keeper'* wire gave him employment, and to her 

 he acted in the douhle capacity of servant and 

 lover, till on her husband's return he was kicked 

 out of doors. He next became footman to a 

 Comteme de VercellU, and on her death not Ion;; 

 alter he took service again as lackey to Conite de 

 Goovon, and as nondescript secretary to the aid,,-, 

 his master's son, till he liecame intolerable Iniih 

 to his masters and his fellow-servant*, and was 

 summarily dismissed. 



Now in 1731 he travelled back to Madame de 

 Warenx, who welcomed him and installed him as 

 permanent inmate of her house. Madame de 

 Warens or, a* her name wax otherwise written and 

 pronounced, Vorrani) or Vuarrans, lived apart from 

 her husband a very independent life, having a 

 pension, which late investigation suggests may have 

 been earned by acting as a politicalspy. She was 

 twenty-eight years oM. pretty and piquant, kindly 

 in disposition, not ligid in morals, but rich in 

 sentiment. Slie was clever and Mighty, dahhling 

 in chemistry and alchemy, dahblitig also in com- 

 mercial speculations which ui:ule her the dupe of 

 adventurers, and bldolgiag in religious specula- 

 lions which i-oMii'.ii' d Deism in creed with Roman 



Catholicism in worship. To her Jean Jacques, 

 now nineteen years old, became pupil and friend, 

 factotum, and ultimately lover, through nearly 

 nine years. This period was diversified 1>y adven- 

 turous interruptions : he at one time set himself up 

 in Lausanne as a teacher of music though hardly 

 able to play a tune, and as a composer though 

 not able to write a score ; became secretary to 

 an archimandrite of the Greek Church, collect- 

 ing subscriptions to restore the Holy Sepulchre ; 

 and then went to Paris as servant to an officer. 

 Thereafter he returned to live with Madame de 

 Warens at Chambery, and from 1738 at Char- 

 mettes, in which lovely retreat his happiest and 

 idlest years w_ere spent, in desultory reading with 

 his momon, in music, indolence and sentiment. 

 This attachment and companionship ceased in- 

 glorioii-ly at last when on returning from recruit- 

 ing his health at Montpollier he found himself sup- 

 planted in the heart of Madame de Warens by one 

 Vintzenried, whom he describes as a journeyman 

 wig-maker, ugly and a fool, who as a lover was 

 tyrannising over his facile mistress, mismanag- 

 ing her affairs and dissipating her money. In 

 disgust in 1740 Jean Jacques quitted hi.- lieloved 

 < 'hannettes, the idyllic memories of which lived in 

 his heart, as by his picturesque description they 

 live immortal in literature. He liecame now tutor 

 in Lyons to the sons of M. de Mably, the brother 

 of the famous Condillac and of the once well- 

 known Abbe de Mably, where he taught with 

 lamentable incapacity. 



In 1741 he set off to seek his fortune in Paris, 

 with a littli- money, some letters of introduction to 

 Parisian notables, and a system of musical notation 

 liy which ho expected to make his reputation. He 

 had to live in a dirty, shabby inn, and to earn a 

 meagre livelihood by copying music, while his 

 musical system was pronounced by the Academy 

 of Sciences 'neither useful nor original.' After 

 a sojourn of eighteen months at Venice, where 

 be acted as cheap secretary to the emliassy till 

 be quarrelled with the amlMUwador, he returned 

 to his inn, his copying, and a secretaryship 

 with M. de Francneil. Meanwhile he had formed 

 a companionship with a girl he found acting as 

 drudge at the inn, called Therese le Vasseur, 



utteily illiterate, densely stupid, plain-featured, 

 mean and vulgar, although he imagined her 

 pnssMimd of every grace in lody, mini!, ami soul. 

 lly her he had five cliildren, eat-li in turn deserted 

 ami con-igncd '>y him to the hospital fur found- 

 lings. He had gained acquaintance with men of 

 letter*, with !>'. \lemheit am) Diderot, as needy a.- 

 himsvlf ; and when they were producing the famous 

 lopa-dia he wrote articles, of which the. most 

 noialile wen- those on music and political economy. 

 Hi- first distinguished appearance in literature was 

 in 1749 by a Discourse on Artsitml *< /> ,< .-,, written 

 successfully for a prize offered by the Academy of 

 Dijon on the problem whether science and the arts 

 have corrupted or purified morals. Here with hold 

 paradox he denounces fiercely and eloquently 

 letters, arts, sciences, and all culture as alike 

 proofs of and causes of corruption. The audacious 

 independence of hi- thought, the freshness of his 

 brilliant style, made him at once celebrated in 

 literary and welcome to fashionable circles of 

 society. In 1753 he next made himself di.-tin- 

 guished as a composer by his opera tin; Devin <ln 

 Village, full of novel and sparkling aim (one of 

 which, .slightly modified, is the well-known hymn- 

 tune called Rousseau's Dream), which was first 

 played with success In-fore the court at Fontaine- 

 lileaii, and when performed in Paris achieved for 

 him a popularity which was not sustained by sub- 

 sequent efforts. It was in the .-aim- \>-ar tl.at 

 there appeared his Discourse on t/ie Origin of In- 

 equality, which, though unsuccessful in winning tin; 

 prize from the Academy at Dijon, was successful 

 in establishing his position as a writer in France. 

 In this discourse he argues that nil eivili-ation 

 is a state of social degradation, that all science ami 

 literature, all social institutions and refinements 

 are forms of degeneration from the primeval savage 

 life, which, with all its ignorance and brutishness, 

 he audaciously pronounces the state of human sim- 

 plicity and perfection. All property is asserted to 

 be derived from confiscation, all wealth is a (rime, 

 all government is tyranny, all social laws are un- 

 just. 



His brilliant denunciation of society made him 

 the more attractive in society ; but hating alike 

 the company of wits and of courtiers, and despis 

 ing fashionable conventions, he lived poorly, 

 dressed meanly, and acted churlishly to show his 

 independence, with that morose self-consciousness, 

 blended with vanity, which was becoming with him 

 a disease. Gladly he accepted from Madame 

 d'Kpinay the offer of a retired cottage, the Her- 

 mitage, on the skirts of the forest of Montmorrncy. 

 near her own chateau Chevrette. There he retired 

 with Therese, her obnoxious mother, and his 

 meagre chattels. Still earning his living liy copy- 

 ing music, which produced about 60 a year, he 

 employed his 'lays amidst the woods of Montnior- 

 ency with conceiving and writing his romance, The 

 New Heloise, inspired in the composition of its 

 rapturous passages by a passion he had formed 

 for Madame d'Houdetxot, the sister of Madame 

 d'Kpinay. His suspicious temper fostered mis 

 understandings with his patroness, and bitter 

 quarrels with her friend Karon Grimm, and with 

 his own warm friend Diderot; and he quitted the 

 beloved Hermitage with reluctance for a cottage at 

 Montlouis not far oil", where he found kind friends 

 in the Duke and Duchess of Luxemburg. In 1760 

 the New Heloise was published, and was instantly 

 received with applause, and Rousseau liccaine the 

 idol of the sentimental though artificial society of 

 Paris. His work was followed in 1762 by the 

 treatise on the Social Contract, published in 

 Amsterdam in order to escape French censorship ; 

 and there two months later also appeared AV////C. 

 By the first work the recluse rose to the first rank 



