120 LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN".

abbe, M. Gaime, who enlightened his mind as to hiereal duties, instructed him in the better part of religion,and corrected his false estimate of society. These lessonswere often forgotten, at least, inasmuch as they oughtto have served as guides for conduct; but they wereas dew upon a field; in due time, the hidden seeds ofthought, then sown, sprang up. While thus unem-ployed, and not looking beyond the hour, the nephewof his late mistress sent for him, and told him that hehad found a situation: he was to become a domesticin a noble family of Turin : this was a fall for the youth’spride, but he had no other resource against want.

He was treated with infinite kindness by the variousmembers of the family : he distinguished himself by hisintelligence; and the younger son, who was destined forclerical honours, became interested for him: he ques-tioned him as to his acquirements; and, finding that hehad received the rudiments of education, undertook toteach him Latin . He might now have been happy:had he shown himself steady, he would have been ad-vanced by his protectors. The Italians , satisfied withthe acknowledged distinctions of rank, have no ridicu-lous pride, and are ready to treat inferiors on an equality,if their education raises them to their mental level.Many careers, closed against the ignoble in France , wereopen in Italy; and these were offered to Rousseau ’s viewas spurs to his ambition. He was won for a briefperiod; but, though he dreamt of climbing, he did notlike going up the ladder — and a caprice ruined all. Hefell in with a merry fellow, who had been his fellowapprentice in Geneva, and who was about to return tothat city. Rousseau , charmed by his wild gay spirits— allured by the attractions of a mountain journeymade on foot, with the idea of madame de W arens inthe misty distance—threw up his situation with a carelessshow of ingratitude that disgusted his protectors, andset out again a beggar, but rendered wildly happy by theproject of travelling among the valleys and over themountains of Savoy, with a little toy fountain as all his