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.

    18/328 (page 2)
    ground, and gave no signs of the boastfulness which he after¬ wards displayed when he became prosperous. At dinner the next day the conversation turned upon music ; he spoke well upon the subject. I was delighted when I heard that he was able to accompany on the piano. After dinner, some music was sent for, and we amused ourselves for the rest of the day on the Prince’s piano. In this manner began that friendship, at first so pleasant to me, and in the end so fatal, of which, from this time forth, I shall have so much to say. On my return to Paris, I received the agreeable news that Diderot had been released from the donjon, and confined to the chateau and park of Vincennes on parole, with permission to see his friends. How painful it was to me not to be able to run to him on the spot ! But I was detained for two or three days at Madame Dupin’s by duties which I could not neglect, and, after what seemed three or four centuries of impatience, I flew into my friend’s arms. 0 indescribable moment ! He was not alone ; D’Alembert and the treasurer of the Sainte-Chapelle were with him. When I entered, I saw no one except him. I made a single bound, I uttered a single cry ; I pressed my face to his ; I embraced him closely without an utterance, except that of my tears and sighs; I was choked with tenderness and joy. The first thing he did, after leaving my arms, was to turn towards the ecclesiastic and say to him : “You see, sir, how my friends love me ! ” Completely overcome by my emotion, I did not at that time think of this manner of turning it to advantage ; but, when occasionally reflecting upon it afterwards, I have always thought that this would not have been the first idea that would have occurred to me had I been in Diderot’s place. I found him greatly affected by his imprisonment. The donjon had made a terrible impression upon him, and, although he was comfortable at the castle and allowed to walk where he pleased in a park that was not even surrounded by walls, he needed the society of his friends, to avoid giving way to melan¬ choly. As I was certainly the one who had most sympathy with his sufferings, I believed that I should also be the one whose presence would be most consoling to him, and, in spite of very pressing engagements, I went at least every other day, alone or with his wife, to spend the afternoon with him. The summer of 1749 was excessively hot. Vincennes is reckoned to be two leagues distant from Paris. Being unable to afford a conveyance, I set out at two o’clock in the afternoon on foot, when I was alone, and walked fast, in order to get there