124 LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN.

metry. But his steady course of life was suddenly in-terrupted. An illness confined him to his chamber, andduring this time Rameau ’s treatise on harmony fellinto his hands. It served still more to develope a pas-sion for music of which he had already given manytokens. He prevailed on madame de Warens to give aweekly concert; he became absorbed in the art —ne-glected his office — and at length proposed to his pro-tectress to give up his situation, that he might devotehimself entirely to the study of composition. Shestruggled against a scheme which offered little prospectof future good, and was to be followed by the imme-diate sacrifice of a respectable position and habits of1735. sober industry. Rousseau ’s ardour caused him to pre-,/Etat. va ;i . an( j } ie became music master at Chambery , thathe might earn a livelihood while he prosecuted hisstudies. He was thus thrown among the best society ofthe town; and found it far more agreeable to teach well-born and agreeable young ladies, than to spend eighthours a day in a close dark office, in company with un-der-bred uncombed clerks. Fortunately, where the saltof intellect prevails, nothing but absolute slavery ofmind to an absorbing and uninstructive pursuit can pre-vent a man of talent from turning the various events oflife to profit. Among his pupils was a M. de Conzie— a man of spine talent, but with no real taste for theart which Rousseau was to teach : conversation was there-fore usually substituted for the lesson; and Rousseau ,led by him to read Voltaire ’s works, acquired somethingof the tone of the literature of the day, and felt himselfrapidly carried away into the very heart of philosophicaldiscussions; —he himself began to desire to write withelegance, charmed by the brilliant style of his great con-temporary.

It is impossible to dwell upon the minutia of his lifefor the five following years; they were important —they led him through early manhood, and during theircourse he developed his taste for the acquirement ofknowledge—educating himself intellectually and mo-