[293:1] Lit. Gazette , 1822, p. 722. Corrected from original in MSS. R.S.E.
[293:2] MS. R.S.E.
[295:1] We are told (vie de Rousseau par Musset Pathay, i. 102,) that a certain M. Augar, having been here presented to the apostle of education, said he was bringing up his son after the model of "Emile." "So much the worse both for you and your son;" tant pis pour vous et pour votre fils, said Rousseau. This must have been highly satisfactory. Of all the theories to reconcile Rousseau's contradictions,—to discover on what principle he preached up parental care, and sent his own children to the foundling hospital, the best is supplied by himself in a single sentence in the Heloise: "L'on sait bien que tout homme qui pose des maximes générales, entend qu'elles obligent tout le monde, excepté lui." This is certainly more intelligible than the mystical theory of his eulogist, D'Escherny: "Il n'y a que les sots qui ne se contredisent point, parce que leur esprit borné ne voit jamais qu'un côté de l'objet."
[295:2] He states, in the "Confessions," that when Wallace's work on the Number of Mankind was passing through the press, Hume undertook the revision of the proof sheets, though the work was written against himself. I am not aware of any other authority for this anecdote. Rousseau said he was charmed with it, because the conduct was so much like his own!
[296:1] Account of the Controversy between Hume and Rousseau.
[297:1] "Un banc très-massif, qui étoit dans la rue à côté de ma porte et fortement attaché, fut détaché, enlevé, et posé debout contre la porte; de sorte que, si l'on ne s'en fût aperçu, le premier qui pour sortir auroit ouvert la porte d'entrée, devoit naturellement être assommé."—Confessions , Liv. 12.
[301:1] Hume, though habitually sceptical, was far from being suspicious; and in his kindness to his new companion, he took every thing in sincerity. "C'est un des malheurs de ma vie," says Rousseau, "qu'avec un si grand désir d'être oublié, je sois contraint de parler de moi sans cesse;" but those who knew him better than Hume did at so early a period of their intercourse, do not give him credit for desiring to be either neglected or forgotten. Madame de Genlis professes to have been much vexed and perplexed by having acted on a reliance similar to Hume's. Rousseau had promised to accompany her to the Comédie Françoise, on the condition that they were to occupy a loge grillée. When they entered, madame flew to shut the grating; Rousseau opposed her; he was sure she would not like it to be closed, and he would be sufficiently hidden, by sitting behind her. In the scuffle he was recognised; madame, vexed and terrified, insisted that the grating should be closed; but he was inexorable. The commencement of a popular piece soon relieved them from notice, and when the eyes of the audience were averted from him, Rousseau grew gloomy and rude. He afterwards professed himself deeply offended at having been exhibited as a wild beast! Mémoires , ii. 12.
The same lady gives a more pleasing instance of his characteristics at that time, in describing her first introduction to him. A friend told her, that her husband intended to play a trick on her: to employ the celebrated mimic Preville, the Foote of the French stage, to personate Rousseau at his table. The expected guest appeared. His dress and appearance were so unlike other people's, yet so like what would have been expected in Rousseau—his conversation was so brilliant—that it certainly must be a piece of wonderful acting. Thoroughly at her ease, she laughed, and talked, and sang the airs of the Devin du village. It was Rousseau himself! and not accustomed, in this the full blaze of his reputation, to be received with so much freedom, by a young and accomplished woman, he pronounced her to be the most lively and unaffected of her sex.
[303:1] MS. R.S.E.
[304:1] It does not appear that Rousseau made any progress in English. In a letter to Hume, from Wooton, he says, "J'ai eu hier la visite de M. le Ministre, qui, voyant que je ne lui parlois que François, n'a pas voulu me parler Anglois, de sorte que l'entrevue s'est passée à peu près sans mot dire. J'ai pris goût à l'expédient; je m'en servirai avec tous mes voisins, si j'en ai; et dussé-je apprendre l'Anglois, je ne leur parlerai que François, sur-tout si j'ai le bonheur qu'ils n'en sachent pas un mot."