Part 33 (1/2)
You have ruined Geneva, in return for the asylum it has afforded you; you have alienated froiust them; it is you who render to me the residence of e n land, deprived of all the consolations usually ad person; and causefuneral rites, to be thrown to the dogs, whilst all the honors a man can expect will accompany you in my country Finally I hate you because you have been desirous I should but I hate you as ayou had you chosen it Of all the sentiments hich my heart was penetrated for you, adenius, and a partiality to your writings, are those you have not effaced If I can honor nothing in you except your talents, the fault is notin the respect due to them, nor in that which this respect requires”
In the s, which still fortified reatest honor letters ever acquired me, and of which I was the ned to make to me, one at the Little Castle and the other at Mont Louis He chose the ti was not at Montmorency, in order to render it more manifest that he came there solely onthe first condescensions of this prince to Mada and Madam de Boufflers; but I am of opinion I owe to his own sentiments and to myself those hich he has since that time continually honored me
[Remark the perseverance of this blind and stupid confidence in the midst of all the treatment which should soonest have undeceived me
It continued until my return to Paris in 1770]
My apart s, I conducted the prince to it, where, to complete the condescension he was pleased to show ame of chess I knew he beat the Chevalier de Lorenzy, who played better than I did However, notwithstanding the signs and grined not to see, I won the two games we played: When they were ended, I said to hirave hness too reat prince, who had real wit, sense, and knowledge, and so orthy not to be treated with mean adulation, felt in fact, at least I think so, that I was the only person present who treated him like a man, and I have every reason to believe he was not displeased with me for it
Had this even been the case, I should not have reproached , and I certainly cannot do it with having in oodness, but solely with having sorace, whilst he hiracefulness the manner in which he showed me the aht This in a little tiaame it contained had been shot by the prince himself I received this second hamper, but I wrote to Madam de Boufflers that I would not receive a third This letter was generally blaame from a prince of the blood, who moreover sends it in so polite a hty man, ishes to preserve his independence, than the rusticity of a cloho does not know himself I have never read this letter inwritten it But I have not undertakenmy faults, and that of which I have just spoken is too shocking in my own eyes to suffer uilty of the offence of beco it; for Mada of the matter She came rather frequently to seeand beautiful, affected to be whimsical, and my mind was always ro laid hold of; I believe she perceived it; the chevalier saw it also, at least he spoke toBut I was this tie of fifty it was time I should be so Full of the doctrine I had just preached to graybeards in my letter to D'Ale by it e of that of which I had been ignorant, I must have been mad to have carried my pretensions so far as to expose myself to such an illustrious rivalry Finally, ill cured perhaps ofcould replace it in my heart, and I bade adieu to love for the rest of erous allurened to forgetthus withdrawn er afraid of a fall, and I answer for myself for the rest ofthe eht also observe I had triuh to believe I was at s; but, froht I had inspired her with a curiosity; if this be the case, and that she has not forgiven me the disappointment she met with, it must be confessed I was born to be the victim of my weaknesses, since triumphant love was so prejudicial to me, and love triumphed over not less so
Here finishes the collection of letters which has served uide in the last two books My steps will in future be directed by memory only; but this is of such a nature, relative to the period to which I a impression of objects has remained so perfectly upon my mind, that lost in the iet the detail of h the consequences present to me but a confused remembrance I therefore shall be able to proceed in the succeeding book with sufficient confidence If I go further it will be groping in the dark
THE CONFESSIONS OF JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU (In 12 books)
Privately Printed for the Members of the Aldus Society
London, 1903
BOOK XI
Although Eloisa, which for a long time had been in the press, did not yet, at the end of the year, 1760, appear, the work already began tohad spoken of it at court, and Madam de Houdetot at Paris The latter had obtained from me permission for Saint La of Poland, who had been delighted with it Duclos, to whoiven the perusal of the work, had spoken of it at the academy All Paris was impatient to see the novel; the booksellers of the Rue Saint Jacques, and that of the Palais Royal, were beset with people who cath brought out, and the success it had, answered, contrary to custom, to the impatience hich it had been expected The dauphiness, as one of the first who read it, spoke of it to, M de Luxe performance The opinions of men of letters differed from each other, but in those of any other class approbation was general, especially with the women, who became so intoxicated with the book and the author, that there was not one in high life hoht not have succeeded had I undertaken to do it
Of this I have such proofs as I will not commit to paper, and which without the aid of experience, authorized ular that the book should have succeeded better in France than in the rest of Europe, although the French, both men and women, are severely treated in it Contrary to my expectation it was least successful in Switzerland, and n in this capital ns in it an exquisite sensibility which transports the heart to their ie, and makes us cherish in others the pure, tender and virtuous sentier possess Corruption is everywhere the saer exist in Europe; but if the least love of them still remains, it is in Paris that this will be found--[I wrote this in 1769]
In the ned passions, the real sentiuished from others, unless ell know to analyze the human heart A very nice discrimination, not to be acquired except by the education of the world, is necessary to feel the finesses of the heart, if I dare use the expression, hich this work abounds I do not hesitate to place the fourth part of it upon an equality with the Princess of Cleves; nor to assert that had these torks been read nowhere but in the provinces, their merit would never have been discovered It must not, therefore, be considered as a reatest success of my as at court It abounds with lively but veiled touches of the pencil, which could not but give pleasure there, because the persons who frequent it are more accustomed than others to discover them A distinction must, however, be made The work is by nobut cunning, who possess no other kind of discernood only is to be found If, for instance, Eloisa had been published in a certain country, I ale person, and the ould have been stifled in its birth
I have collected most of the letters written to me on the subject of this publication, and deposited theether, in the hands of Madaiven to the world, very singular things will be seen, and an opposition of opinion, which shohat it is to have to do with the public The thing least kept in view, and which will ever distinguish it from every other work, is the simplicity of the subject and the continuation of the interest, which, confined to three persons, is kept up throughout six volu malicious either in the persons or actions Diderot coious variety of his portraits and the multiplicity of his persons In fact, Richardson has thewell characterized them all; but with respect to their number, he has that in common with the most insipid writers of novels who atte persons and adventures It is easy to awaken the attention by incessantly presenting unheard of adventures and new faces, which pass before the iic lanthorn do before the eye; but to keep up that attention to the same objects, and without the aid of the wonderful, is certainlyequal, the simplicity of the subject adds to the beauty of the work, the novels of Richardson, superior in so many other respects, cannot in this be cootten, and the cause of its being so; but it will be taken up again All my fear was that, by an extre, and that it was not sufficiently interesting to engage the attention throughout the whole I was relieved from this apprehension by a circu to my pride than all the coinning of the carnival; a hawker carried it to the Princess of Talmont--[It was not the princess, but so of a ball night at the opera
After supper the Princess dressed herself for the ball, and until the hour of going there, took up the new novel At e, and continued to read The servant returned to tell her the horses were put to; she ot herself, came to tell her it o o'clock ”There is yet no hurry,” replied the princess, still reading on So to know the hour She was told it was four o'clock ”That being the case,” she said, ”it is too late to go to the ball; let the horses be taken off”
She undressed herself and passed the rest of the night in reading
Ever since I cae of this circumstance, I have had a constant desire to see the lady, not only to know from herself whether or not what I have related be exactly true, but because I have always thought it impossible to be interested in so lively athat sixth and moral sense hich so few hearts are endowed, and without which no person whatever can understand the sentiments of mine
What rendered the wo persuaded that I had written my own history, and was myself the hero of the romance This opinion was so firnac wrote to Mada she would prevail upon ht it was i felt them, or thus to describe the transports of love, unless is of the heart
This was true, and I certainly wrote the novel during the tiht real objects necessary to this effect were deceived, and far froree I can at will produce it for is Without Madam d'Houdetot, and the recollection of a few circumstances in my youth, the amours I have felt and described would have been with fairy ny either to confireous to ue, which I had printed separately, in what orous people say, I ought to have explicity declared the truth Forthat could oblige me to it, and am of opinion there would have been more folly than candor in the declaration without necessity
Much about the same time the 'Paix Perpetuelle' iven the manuscript to a certain M de Bastide, the author of a journal called Le Monde, into which he would at all events cram all my manuscripts He was known to M Duclos, and ca I would help him to fill the Monde He had heard speak of Eloisa, and would havethe same use of Emilius; he would have asked me for the Social Contract for the sath, fatigued with his i hiave hireement was, that he should print it in his journal; but as soon as he becaht proper to print it separately, with a few retrenchments, which the censor required him to make What would have happened had I joined to the work my opinion of it, which fortunately I did not coreest my papers If ever it be made public, the world will see how much the pleasantries and self-sufficient manner of M de Voltaire on the subject must have htedness of this poor man in political matters, of which he took it into his head to speak, shake hter
In the midst of round at the Hotel de Luxeoodness to me seemed daily to increase, but with his lady Since I had had nothing more to read to her, the door of her apart her stay at Montularly presented myself, I seldom saw her except at table My place even there was not distinctly er offeredon my part much to say to her, I ell satisfied with another, where I was ; for Imyself nearer and nearer to thesaid I did not sup at the castle, and this was true, at the beginning ofdid not dine, nor even sit down to table, it happened that I was for several months, and already very fa eaten with hioodness to remark, upon which I determined to sup there from time to time, when the company was not nureeable, as the dinners were taken al, everybody reood and agreeable, because M de Luxe, and the honors of the manner by madam de marechale Without this explanation it would be difficult to understand the end of a letter fro, in which he says he recollects our walks with the greatest pleasure; especially, adds he, when in the evening we entered the court and did not find there the traces of carriages The rake being every ravel to efface the ed by the number of ruts of that of the persons who had arrived in the afternoon