ROUSSEAU. 191 



the point, as not unfrequently happens, upon which 

 the insanity turned which clouded some of his later 

 years, is certain ; but no less certainly may we perceive 

 its malignant influence through the whole of his 

 course. He laboured under a great delusion upon this 

 subject ; for he actually conceived that he had less 

 vanity than any other person that ever existed ; and 

 he has given expression to this notion. The ground 

 of the delusion plainly was, that he often forgot this 

 indulgence in pursuit of others ; and also, that he had 

 less shame than other men in unveiling his faults and 

 frailties, when their disclosure ministered to any ruling 

 propensity, not seldom when it fed that same vanity 

 itself. But no one can read his account of the fancies 

 he took in his early years* and not perceive how strik- 

 ingly the love of distinction prevailed in him even 

 then, and while his existence was perfectly obscure. 

 The displays that captivated him, excited his envy, and 

 even led to his uncouth attempts at imitation, were not 

 the solid qualities or valuable acquirements of those he 

 saw at Annecy or at Turin, but the base tricks and 

 superficial accomplishments of a Bacler and a Venture, 

 performers of the lowest order, but who, he perceived, 

 were followed by public applause. Later in life he 

 seems to have been almost insensible to any existence 

 but his own, or when he could believe in that of exter- 

 nal objects, it was always in reference to himself; and 

 at last this feeling reached the morbid temperature of 

 fancying that he and his concerns were the only thing 

 about which all other men cared, and with which 

 all were occupying themselves ; thus absorbing in self- 



