168 ROUSSEAU. 



missemens si tendres durant lesquels tu pressais sur 

 ton coeur, ce coeur fait pour s'unir a lui."* He calls 

 her " divine Julie." It certainly was another epithet 

 originally ; I remember to have first read it " incon- 

 cevable Julie," and to have thought it the best word 

 in the whole book. 



There is no concealing the truth that a volume of 

 love-letters must naturally be tiresome to the very 

 verge of not being readable. Their interest to the 

 parties is only exceeded by their indifference in all 

 other eyes. Hence the ' Nouvelle Helo'ise,' which pro- 

 fesses chiefly to consist of this kind of material in its 

 most interesting portions, must have been dull, had 

 there been no digressions to relieve it. The marriage 

 of Julie, and 'the Parisian sojourn of St. Preux, his 

 return to La Meillerie, and Julie's death, afford those 

 varieties, and enable the book to proceed through its 

 very considerable length. 



At 1'Ermitage he very soon fell in love with Ma- 

 dame d'Houdetot, M. d'Epinay's sister, and he de- 

 clares that this was the only love he ever felt in 

 his life. How often the same thing had been avowed 

 to others by the man of pure heart, who deemed 

 sincerity as above all other virtues, who could excuse all 

 vices save the want of perfect simplicity and honesty, 

 we have no means of judging. That he had before 

 been on such terms with some seven or eight women 

 as must have led to similar declarations of attachment, 

 unless he avowed that he treated them as brutes, as 



* Part I., Let. Iv. : OEuv., ii. 127. 



