ROUSSEAU. 149 



on the 28th of June. Indeed, if he remained in his 

 next place less than a year, as he was uncertain when 

 he left it, he must have been eighteen when he com- 

 mitted the offence. Nothing therefore like an excuse, 

 or extenuation from his youth, can be urged on this 

 head. 



He was now to prove himself as foolish as he had 

 been found wicked. Received as footman in the great 

 family of Solar, an accident showed him to be superior 

 in reading to the other servants, and one of the house, 

 the Abbe de Gouvon, a man of great accomplishments 

 and of a kindly disposition, made him a sort of secre- 

 tary, taking much pains also with his education ; so 

 that, though he could not master Latin, he became a 

 good Italian scholar. Suddenly the fancy seized him of 

 quarrelling with the good people, and returning on foot 

 to Geneva with a good-for-nothing young rake from that 

 town, named Bacler, whose acquaintance he had made, 

 and whose low buffoonery he could not refrain from re- 

 lishing, and even envying, as he uniformly did whatever 

 qualities he observed to attract the admiration of the 

 multitude. He showed the utmost insolence and in- 

 gratitude to the Solars, and was all but kicked out of 

 their palace, where he had been cherished as a child of 

 the family, and had been offered the sure means of mak- 

 ing his fortune. A plaything, which in his extreme 

 ignorance he calls fontaine d'heron, but which is well 

 known as the fountain of Hiero (fontaine d'Hieron), had 

 been given him by his patron. His childish delight in 

 tins bauble was unbounded, and he expected by show- 

 ing it off on the road to make his way for nothing, a 

 journey of ninety leagues. With this ridiculous pro- 



