ROUSSEAU. 163 



pression on hearts as yet little acquainted with real 

 passion, and heads inexperienced in the social relations ; 

 it assuredly has no great charms either for the experi- 

 enced or the wise, and is alike condemned by a severe 

 taste in composition and a strict judgment in morals. 



It would be endless to support these remarks by 

 examples ; but let us only take, as the fairest test by 

 which to judge the ' Nouvelle Heloi'se,' its author's 

 own favourite piece, the ' Elysee' and the ' Voyage on 

 the Lake,' at the end of Part iv. They are Letters 

 xi. and xvii. of that part ; and he denounces a woe 

 upon whosoever can read them without feeling his 

 heart melt in tenderness.* 1 



Now the greater part of the first (Letter xi.) is mere 

 description of place ; it is landsca'pe painting, not 

 history painting; and, with the exception of an ex- 

 tremely unnatural reprimand, given by M. de Wolmar 

 to St. Preux, for speaking of the shrubbery where he 

 and Julie used to ramble, and into which since her 

 marriage she never went, there is really not one touch 

 of sentiment in the whole : unless, indeed, it can be 

 reckoned such, that on revisiting the Elysee next 

 morning, when he expected to be melted with seeing 

 the walks she had made and used, the flowers she 

 had planted, &c., he recollects the terrible reprimand 

 of the evening before, and no longer can think of any 

 thing except the happiness of a future state. All this 

 is well written, but it is mere rhetoric ; the sen- 



* " Quiconque, en lisant ces deux lettres, ne sent pas amollir, et se 

 fonder son coeur dans 1'attendrissement qui me les dictat, doit fermer 

 le livre ; il n'est pas fait pour juger les choses de sentiment." 

 (Conf., part ii. liv. 9.) 



M 2 



