Volume 2

Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau / Jean Jacques Rousseau.

  • Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778.
Date:
1931
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau / Jean Jacques Rousseau. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/328 (page 1)
    THE CONFESSIONS OF JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU BOOK VIII [i749] I have been obliged to pause at the end of the preceding book. With the present book commences, in its first origin, the long chain of my misfortunes. Having lived in two of the most brilliant houses in Paris, I had made some acquaintances, in spite of my want of tact; amongst others, at Madame Dupin’s, the young hereditary prince of Saxe- Gotha and Baron de Thun, his tutor ; at M. de Poplini£re’s, M. Seguy, a friend of Baron de Thun, who was known in the literary world by his beautiful edition of Rousseau.1 The Baron invited M. Seguy and myself to spend a day or two at Fontenay- sous-Bois, where the Prince had a country house. We accepted the invitation. While passing Vincennes, I felt so distressed at the sight of the donjon, that the Baron perceived the effects of my emotion on my countenance. At supper the Prince spoke of Diderot’s confinement. The Baron, in order to make me speak, accused the prisoner of imprudence, which I myself displayed by the impetuosity with which I defended him. This excess of zeal was excused in a man who was inspired by attachment to an unfortunate friend, and the conversation took another turn. Two Germans, belonging to the Prince’s suite, were present: M. Kliipfel, a man of great ability, his chaplain, who afterwards supplanted the Baron, and became his tutor ; and a young man named Grimm, who held the post of reader until he could find some other place, and whose modest equipment showed how urgent was his need for finding something of the kind. From that same evening, Kliipfel and myself formed an acquaintance which soon ripened into friendship. My acquaintance with M. Grimm did not advance so rapidly ; he kept himself in the back- 1 Jean Baptiste Rousseau, the poet.