190 ROUSSEAU. 



screening himself from annoyances or of reconciling 

 himself to the favour of the Calvinists at Geneva. No 

 more selfish and unprincipled conduct can be easily cited 

 of any man who had Rousseau's deep feelings of the im- 

 portance properly attached to all religious subjects. 



The crime of his life which is most dwelt upon, and 

 can never be held up to sufficient execration, has been 

 already more than once referred to ; it was entirely the 

 result of the same selfish disposition, the same confirmed 

 incapacity to see or feel any other existence than his own. 

 What incurable folly to suppose that any one could be 

 duped, or that he was himself duped, by the pretence 

 of his having an insufficient income, and being unwill- 

 ing that his children should be brought up in penury ! 

 How could a man of ordinary reflection avoid perceiv- 

 ing a refutation of his defence each time that he swal- 

 lowed a morsel more palatable than bread and water ? 

 How could a man of ordinary feeling avoid tasting in 

 each such morsel the bitterness of an asp's gall ? But 

 his circumstances mended he became possessed of 

 money did he endeavour to repair the mischief he 

 had done? He hardly allowed Madame de Luxem- 

 bourg to make inquiry as to one of his exposed chil- 

 dren, and after none of them did he himself ever in- 

 quire. He was determined to lead his own life of 

 misery, and vanity, and self-indulgence, uninterrupted 

 by the cries or the claims of a family, the bringing of 

 whom into the world was his own act, also an act of 

 self-indulgence. 



A part of this his moral nature, and a material part 

 of it, was his vanity, perhaps greater than ever had 

 dominion over a highly gifted mind. That this was 



