ROUSSEAU. 181 



In 1790 the National Assembly bestowed a pension 

 of 1200 francs on his widow, which the Convention, 

 in 1793, increased to 1500, ordering also a statue to 

 his memory. The following year his remains were 

 transferred to the Pantheon, with those of Voltaire, 

 and others of the great men to whom the simple and 

 striking inscription of that noble edifice refers.* The 

 example of Paris was followed in the other towns which 

 he had at any time honoured with his residence. His 

 statue was erected at Geneva ; and at Lyons, Grenoble, 

 Montpelier, almost wherever he had dwelt, celebra- 

 tions in honour of his memory were had. 



The pension, and the interest of considerable funds 

 (nearly 40,000 francs) which the different publishers 

 owed her husband, amply provided for his widow. But 

 that worthless creature, immediately after his death, 

 formed a connexion with an Irishman, a groom of 

 M. Girardin, owner of Ermenonville. With him she 

 lived until he had spent all her money, and she was 

 in her old age reduced to beggary. In that state she 

 used to take her stand and beg at the door of the 

 theatre. She died in 1801, at the age of 80. 



All Rousseau's works, except his posthumous me- 

 moirs, the ' Confessions,' we have had occasion already 

 to consider. But that is, beyond any question, and very 

 much beyond any comparison, his masterpiece. There 

 is no work in the French language of which the style 

 is more racy, and, indeed, more classically pure. But 

 its diction is idiomatical as well as pure. As if he had 

 lived long enough away from Geneva to lose not only 



* Aux Grands Hommes, la Patrie Reconnaissante. 



