194 ROUSSEAU. 



by weaknesses which exertion and self-restraint might 

 in time have extirpated or counteracted, the excuse 

 which is sometimes made of mental disease likewise 

 fails. Rousseau's malady was probably of this descrip- 

 tion ; but weaknesses are to be palliated, if not pitied, 

 by a view of bodily sufferings such as he certainly en- 

 dured ; and as far as irritable temper and restless dis- 

 position are concerned, let no one severely blame them, 

 or even look down too proudly on the conduct which 

 they prompted, without reflecting charitably and com- 

 passionately upon the diseased state in which much of 

 his life was passed, and considering in common fair- 

 ness how much less impatient and irritable he would 

 himself have proved under the same infliction. 



APPENDIX. 



IT appears from the whole correspondence with M. de St. 

 Germain, which I have seen, that two or three letters not 

 published were written to him by Rousseau after his arrival 

 in Paris, 1770 and 1771. From that time to his death, in 

 1778, none appear. 



The following epitaph on Voltaire by Rousseau has not, as 

 it seems, ever before been published. It may appear some- 

 what to qualify the praise bestowed on the latter for his treat- 

 ment of that great man ; and though written with spirit, is ex- 

 tremely unjust. 



" Plus bel esprit que grand genie, 

 Sans loi, sans mceurs, et sans vertu ; 

 II est mort comme il a vecu, 

 Couvert de gloire et d'infamie." 



