160 ROUSSEAU. 



supplanted there by his superior address and habits of 

 the world. Among others he had presented him to 

 the family of M. d'Epinay, Fermier-General, who 

 kept a very hospitable house, where the Encyclopedists 

 were familiar, as they were still more at the Baron 

 d'Holbach's. Grimm became the professed lover of 

 Madame d'Epinay, whose sister-in-law, Madame 

 d'Houdetot, made a still deeper impression on the 

 heart of Rousseau ; but her avowed lover was his 

 friend St. Lambert. The Epinays had a country house, 

 Chenettes, in the fine valley of Montmorency ; and 

 Rousseau, when visiting there, was greatly taken with 

 the retirement of a cottage and garden called the 

 Hermitage, in its neighbourhood, and likewise belong- 

 ing to the family. Hither he transferred his resi- 

 dence, in the spring of 1756, and it was his home for 

 the next six years of his life.* Theresa's mother came 

 with him as well as herself, and nothing can be more 

 disgusting than the details of her mean, sordid, double- 

 dealing conduct, to obtain money and other things from 

 him, through the agency of her daughter. But she 

 was of some use in the management of his house, for 

 which her daughter was as unfit as himself. 



At the Hermitage, for the first year or two of his resi- 

 dence, he seems to have suffered for want of the society 

 which he had quitted, though this is the last thing he 

 will confess. He admits that his imagination was excited 



* It is only another instance of his inattention to dates that he 

 totally omits the several years passed at Neufchatel, when he speaks 

 of Montmorency as his constant residence, and represents it as such 

 after his visit to England in 1766. 



