148 ROUSSEAU. 



a ribbon had been stolen ; all were interrogated, and 

 Rousseau, in whose possession it was found, and who 

 was in fact the thief, had the wickedness to charge it 

 upon an innocent girl ; he persisted in averring that she 

 had stolen it to give him, there having been some little 

 love-making between them. The ruin of this poor girl 

 was the consequence, and he describes the bitter agonies 

 of remorse which he ever after endured in reflecting 

 upon the crime thus committed. He endeavours to 

 explain it in a refined, absurd, and false manner, by 

 saying that his love for Marian caused it all, because 

 he had stolen it to give her, and this put it into his 

 head to think of accusing her of the same intention. 

 But the truth is, that his cowardice, the parent of lies, 

 caused it all. He never would have dared charge a 

 man with the offence. He thought he could escape 

 exposure and perhaps punishment (though he affects to 

 say he dreaded not that) by laying the blame on an 

 innocent young girl who had shown a liking for him 

 which he returned. He also tries to represent himself 

 as only a child then,* and, writing in 1766 or 1767, 

 speaks of forty years having elapsed. But this is not 

 true. He came to Annecy in 1728, sixteen years old, 

 having left Geneva in July or August, and after several 

 months' residence in Turin and the seminary, and 

 three in the Countess's house, he must have been seven- 

 teen when she died, instead of fourteen or fifteen, which 

 his calculation of forty years would make him. He 

 expressly says that he had attained the age of sixteen 

 before he ran away from his master, and he was born 



* " La faute d'un enfant." (Conf., part i. liv. 2.) 



