146 ROUSSEAU. 



book of Tacitus's ' History,' and translated it exceed- 

 ingly well, in most passages correctly, in some % with 

 great felicity, is one of the exaggerations in which he 

 indulges both of his merits and his defects. But he 

 learnt whatever he knew comparatively late. Nothing 

 could possibly be worse than the education of a man 

 who made it a principle through life to cry down 

 learning, not because he never possessed it, but because 

 he found it was hurtful to the character and incon- 

 sistent with sound wisdom and true virtue. 



After quitting the school at Boissy, he was appren- 

 ticed to an engraver, who seems to have treated him 

 harshly. But his conduct was already bad. He had 

 a habit of lying on all occasions, whether moved by fear 

 to conceal some misconduct, or incited by some appetite 

 he wished to gratify, or actuated by some other equally 

 sordid motive. A strong disposition to thieving was 

 likewise among his propensities, and this continued to 

 abide by him long after he grew up, and even when 

 he lived in society he never could entirely shake it off. 

 His temperament, too, was vehement, and his timidity 

 and shyness equally strong. The indulgences into 

 which he was thus seduced, he has himself described ; 

 but to embellish such subjects, or even to veil them so 

 as to hide their disgusting aspect, would require the 

 magic of that diction in which he has clothed his own 

 story, and of which he never seems to have been a 

 master in any of his other writings. After serving 

 through half his apprenticeship, he was surprised one 

 Sunday evening in an excursion with his companions, 

 out of the town, by the shutting of the gates ; and 

 there wanted no more to make him elope. He went 



