ROUSSEAU. 



and he got twenty florins in exchange with his new religion. 

 When this money was fpent, he found no better refburce 

 than to enter into the fervice of a countefs : here he com- 

 mitted a crime, which he acknowledges, in his " Confeffions," 

 with the mod heartfelt remorfe. He Hole a ribbon, and 

 when it was found in his pofleffion, he not only denied the 

 theft, but charged an innocent and amiable young woman 

 in the houfe with it, to whom, in fait, he meant to have 

 prefented the ribbon. After the death of the countefs, he 

 entered into the family of a nobleman, whofe fon, a literary 

 man, took pains to inltruc't him,' and treated him rather as 

 a companion or pupil than a fervant. But the flattering 

 profpefts opened to him by this connection he deftroycd by 

 his imprudence and mifcondudt, and being turned out of 

 doors, after patting fome time as a vagabond, he returned 

 to Madame de Warrens. This lady had found means to ally 

 her devotional turn of mind with the indulgence of amorous 

 propenfities, of which young Roufleau was an object, 

 though not the only one. Through her intereft he obtained 

 a place as fecretary to a commifuon, appointed by the king 

 of Sardinia for furveying lands, and in this employ he con- 

 tinued two years, during which he applied lumfelf to the 

 itudy of arithmetic and geometry. Mulic, however, became 

 his paffion, and growing difgufted with his other occupation, 

 he renounced it, and took up the profefiion of mufic-malter 

 at Chamberry. Here he palled eight years, intimately con- 

 nected with Madame de Warrens, though not without fol- 

 lowing her example of occalional deviations to other fa- 

 vourites. At length a coldnefs took place, and Roufleau 

 was recommended by her to the office of tutor to the chil- 

 dren of M. Mably, at Lyons. He did not retain this filia- 

 tion very long, but went to Paris, where he lived in ob- 

 fcurity till 1743, when he obtained the appointment of 

 fecretary to the French ambaflador to the republic of Venice. 

 It was not long before he quarrelled with his fuperior, and 

 returning to Paris, with an improved knowledge and talle 

 in mufic, he lived by it, at the fame time employing his lei- 

 fure in the (ludy of natural philofophy and botany. He was 

 For fome time clerk to \l farmer-general, and with part of 

 the profits which he gained in this fituation he repaid fome 

 of the pecuniary affiftance he had received from Madame de 

 Warrens, who now flood in need of it. In 1748 he began 

 to feel the attacks of a painful diforder, which troubled him 

 during the remainder of his life, and bv incapacitating him 

 for aftive employments, might perhaps be a remote caufe of 

 his literary fame. The year 1750 was the commencement 

 of his literary career. The academy of Dijon had propofed 

 the following queftion, " Whether the revival of the arts and 

 fciences has contributed to the refinement of manners." 

 Roufleau, it is faid, at firft inclined to the affirmative fide 

 of the queftion ; but by the perfuafion of Diderot he was 

 induced to fupport the negative, as moft likely to attract 

 notice. His difcourfe againft the advantages of the fciences 

 accordingly having been found to be the belt written, and re- 

 plete with the deeped reafoning, was publicly crowned with 

 the approbation of this learned body, and was generally read 

 with the intereft ufually infpired by a fplendid paradox. 

 Several anfwers appeared againlt it, one of which was writ- 

 ten by Staniflaus, king of Poland : it was enough for Rouf- 

 feau to have made his name known with fo much diftindtion 

 in the literary world. The part which he took feems to 

 have made a lafting imprefiion upon him, in preference of 

 the favage to the civilized life, which was fo frequent a fub- 

 ject of his declamation. Among other attacks which this 

 difcourfe drew upon him, was that of being ridiculed on the 

 ftage of Nancy, by Paliftot, in his " Comedic des Philofo- 

 phes," The king of Poland, then duke of Lorraine, was 

 4 



fo much difpleafed with this infult, that he caufed a letter 

 of apology to be written to Roufleau, at the fame time ac- 

 quainting him that he had deprived Paliffot of his place at 

 the academy of Nancy, and it is highly to the credit of the 

 philofopher, that he immediately interceded for him and ob- 

 tained his relloration. 



In 1752 Roufleau wrote a comedy, entitled " Narciffe, ou 

 l'Amant de lui-meme." He alio compofed a mufical en- 

 tertainment of " Le Devin du Village," which was repre- 

 fented with the greateft fuccefs at Paris. His next piece 

 was " Lettre fur la Mufique Francoife," which was to 

 prove that the French had no luch thing as vocal mufic, and 

 that, from the defeAs in their language, they could not have it. 

 The letter was written with much tafte, and (hewed a deep 

 knowledge of the fubje£t of which he was treating, but it 

 brought down upon his head a itorm of refentment, even to 

 the burning of him in effigy. In 1 754 he returned to Geneva, 

 where he abjured the Catholic faith, and was reftored to the 

 rights of citizenfhip. For this favour he made a return by 

 the patriotic, and truly eloquent dedication to the republic, 

 of his " Difcours fur les Caufes de l'Inegalite parmi les 

 Hommes, et lur l'Origine des Societcs." No one could 

 give better advice to his fellow-citizens than Roufleau has 

 done in his dedication. The work itfelf is full of almoft 

 unintelligible maxims and wild ideai ; and was written with 

 a view to prove that mankind are equal ; that they were 

 born to live apart from each other ; and that they have per- 

 verted the order of nature in forming facieties. He beftows 

 the highelt praife on the ftate of nature, and deprecates the 

 idea of every focial compaft. It is, however, rhetorical 

 rather than argumentative, and is over-run with much idle 

 declamation in praife of a favage, and depreciation of a 

 civilized ftate, which the author repeated fo often till he 

 probably believed the paradox. Our author did not remain 

 long at Geneva, but returned to France, and lived fome time 

 at Paris, after which he retired to Montmorency, as a 

 ftudious folitary, and publifhed, in 1758, his "Lettre" to 

 M. D'Alembert on tht delign of eltablilhing a theatre at 

 Geneva. This traft is written with great force of reafoning, 

 and (hews that the author had made the moft profound ob- 

 fervations on life and manners ; and he feems to have carried 

 his point in proving that a theatre could not be neceffary in a 

 place circumftanced as Geneva was. This work is thought 

 to have laid the foundation of that hatred which Voltaire 

 never ceafed to entertain for the Genevan philofopher. 

 Replies were written by D'Alembert and Marmontel. 



In 1760 Roufleau publifhed his celebrated novel, entitled 

 " Lettres de deux Amans, &c." but generally known by 

 the title of " Julie, ou la Nouvelle Heloife." This epiftolary 

 romance, of which the plot is ill-managed, and the arrange- 

 ment bad, like all other works of genius, has its beauties as 

 well as its defedts. Some of the letters are, indeed, ad- 

 mirable, from the force and the warmth of expreffion, from 

 an effervefcence of fentiments, from the irregularity of ideas 

 which always characterize a paffion carried to its height. 

 By one critic it has been aflumed that none of the perfonages 

 of this novel are really interefting. "That of St. Preux is 

 weak, and often forced. Julia is an aflemblage of tender, 

 nefs and pity, of elevation of foul, and of coquetry, of 

 natural parts and pedantry. Wolmar is a violent man, and 

 almoft beyond the limits of nature. In fine, when he wifhes 

 to change his Ityle, and adopt that of the fpeaker, he does 

 not long fupport it, and every attempt embarrafles the author 

 and cools the reader. In the Heloife, Rouffeau's talent of 

 rendering every thing problematical, appears very confpu 

 cuons, as, in his arguments in favour of, and againft, duel, 

 ling, which afford an apology for fuicide, and a juft con. 



demnation 



