of paying court to Rousseau by making a mock of the triumphal reception of the old warrior, but Rousseau harshly checked the detractor.  It is true that in 1770-71 he gave to some few of his acquaintances one or more readings of the Confessions, although they contained much painful matter for many people still living, among the rest for Madame d’Epinay.  She wrote justifiably enough to the lieutenant of police, praying that all such readings might be prohibited, and it is believed that they were so prohibited.[400]

In 1769, when Polish anarchy was at its height, as if to show at once how profound the anarchy was, and how profound the faith among many minds in the power of the new French theories, an application was made to Mably to draw up a scheme for the renovation of distracted Poland.  Mably’s notions won little esteem from the persons who had sought for them, and in 1771 a similar application was made to Rousseau in his Parisian garret.  He replied in the Considerations on the Government of Poland, which are written with a good deal of vigour of expression, but contain nothing that needs further discussion.  He hinted to the Poles with some shrewdness that a curtailment of their territory by their neighbours was not far off,[401] and the prediction was rapidly fulfilled by the first partition of Poland in the following year.

He was asked one day of what nation he had the highest opinion.  He answered, the Spanish.  The Spanish nation, he said, has a character; if it is not rich, it still preserves all its pride and self-respect in the midst of its poverty; and it is animated by a single spirit, for it has not been scourged by the conflicting opinions of philosophy.[402]

He was extremely poor for these last eight years of his life.  He seems to have drawn the pension which George III. had settled on him, for not more than one year.  We do not know why he refused to receive it afterwards.  A well-meaning friend, when the arrears amounted to between six and seven thousand francs, applied for it on his behalf, and a draft for the money was sent.  Rousseau gave the offender a vigorous rebuke for meddling in affairs that did not concern him, and the draft was destroyed.  Other attempts to induce him to draw this money failed equally.[403] Yet he had only about fifty pounds a year to live on, together with the modest amount which he earned by copying music.[404]

The sting of indigence began to make itself felt towards 1777.  His health became worse and he could not work.  Theresa was waxing old, and could no longer attend to the small cares of the household.  More than one person offered them shelter and provision, and the old distractions as to a home in which to end his days began once again.  At length M. Girardin prevailed upon him to come and live at Ermenonville, one of his estates some twenty miles from Paris.  A dense cloud of obscure misery hangs over the last months of this forlorn existence.[405] No tragedy