Confessions of J. J. Rousseau, the — Complete eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 958 pages of information about Confessions of J. J. Rousseau, the — Complete.

Confessions of J. J. Rousseau, the — Complete eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 958 pages of information about Confessions of J. J. Rousseau, the — Complete.
to do the needful to the edition.  This manner of acting was according to my way of thinking.  I had sold at six sous (three pence) a piece, the copies of a song written against myself.  I was, therefore, strongly prejudiced in favor of Hume, when Madam de Verdelin came and mentioned the lively friendship he expressed for me, and his anxiety to do me the honors of England; such was her expression.  She pressed me a good deal to take advantage of this zeal and to write to him.  As I had not naturally an inclination to England, and did not intend to go there until the last extremity, I refused to write or make any promise; but I left her at liberty to do whatever she should think necessary to keep Mr. Hume favorably disposed towards me.  When she went from Motiers, she left me in the persuasion, by everything she had said to me of that illustrious man, that he was my friend, and she herself still more his.

After her departure, Montmollin carried on his manoeuvres with more vigor, and the populace threw off all restraint.  Yet I still continued to walk quietly amidst the hootings of the vulgar; and a taste for botany, which I had begun to contract with Doctor d’Ivernois, making my rambling more amusing, I went through the country herbalising, without being affected by the clamors of this scum of the earth, whose fury was still augmented by my calmness.  What affected me most was, seeing families of my friends,

[This fatality had begun with my residence at, Yverdon; the banneret Roguin dying a year or two after my departure from that city, the old papa Roguin had the candor to inform me with grief, as he said, that in he papers of his relation, proofs had been found of his having been concerned in the conspiracy to expel me from Yverdon and the state of Berne.  This clearly proved the conspiracy not to be, as some people pretended to believe, an affair of hypocrisy since the banneret, far from being a devotee, carried materialism and incredulity to intolerance and fanaticism.  Besides, nobody at Yverdon had shown me more constant attention, nor had so prodigally bestowed upon me praises and flattery as this banneret.  He faithfully followed the favorite plan of my persecutors.]

or of persons who gave themselves that name, openly join the league of my persecutors; such as the D’Ivernois, without excepting the father and brother of my Isabel le Boy de la Tour, a relation to the friend in whose house I lodged, and Madam Girardier, her sister-in-law.  This Peter Boy was such a brute; so stupid, and behaved so uncouthly, that, to prevent my mind from being disturbed, I took the liberty to ridicule him; and after the manner of the ‘Petit Prophete’, I wrote a pamphlet of a few pages, entitled, ’la Vision de Pierre de la Montagne dit le Voyant, —­[The vision of Peter of the Mountain called the Seer.]—­in which I found means to be diverting enough on the miracles which then served as the great pretext for my persecution.  Du Peyrou had this scrap printed at Geneva, but its success in the country was but moderate; the Neuchatelois with all their wit, taste but weakly attic salt or pleasantry when these are a little refined.

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Confessions of J. J. Rousseau, the — Complete from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.