154 ROUSSEAU. 



trinket, and pressed it upon the woman through whom 

 the money had been sent. Rousseau charges himself 

 with black ingratitude for not having gone with her 

 and saved her from wretchedness ; he could not quit 

 a new attachment which he had formed, and he declares 

 that the reflection on his conduct had haunted him with 

 remorse greater than any other passage of his life could 

 inflict. 



But we have anticipated in the narrative. From 

 Chambery he removed to Lyons, where his kind pro- 

 tectress obtained for him an employment as preceptor 

 in M. Mabillon's family. Soon he, as usual, left this 

 place, returned to Chambery, found he could no longer 

 be comfortable in Madame de Warens' house, and set 

 out to seek his fortune in Paris with a ' Discourse on a 

 new Theory of Music,' or rather Musical Notation, 

 which he had written. It had some success at the 

 Academy, where it was read ; he became introduced to 

 many persons of note ; he accepted the place of secre- 

 tary to Count de Montaigue, ambassador at Venice, and 

 was on his arrival, as he represents, made secretary of 

 the embassy. Here his conduct was, for the first time in 

 his life, prudent, and he reaped the fruits of it in the re- 

 spectability which he enjoyed. He remained performing 

 with satisfaction all the duties of his station, which the 

 utter incapacity of the ambassador made heavier than 

 they otherwise would have been ; and after a variety of 

 the meanest attempts on his Excellency's part to share 

 his perquisites, and repeated acts of maltreatment, at last 

 amounting to the insolence and fury of a madman, this 

 ambassador compelled him to resign. The madness 

 had, however, some method, for the salary was with- 



