130 LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN.

this want led to the fatal act from which sprung so manyof his misfortunes.

In his native country, or in England, Rousseau would,under the influence of public opinion, probably havemarried. He would not have been content in forming sosolemn a tie without bring satisfied with the connectionsof her who hereafter was to share his life; he wouldhave desired still more to assure himself of the qualitiesof her heart and mind. Unfortunately his residence inSavoy and in l’aris had deprived him of all primitivesimplicity in his principles of moral conduct ; and hehad none of that fastidious taste that made him shrinkfrom the society of the vicious. For purposes of eco-nomy he dined at a sort of table-d’hote frequented bypersons lost to all sense of decency ; refinement was outof the question. He found a poor girl there, who wastoo modest for the depraved and brutalised men whofrequented the house. Rousseau took her part, ties ofkindness were formed between them, and it appearinga matter of convenience to himself, he induced her tobecome his mistress.

Therese le Vasseur was not an ill-conducted girl oncertain points; she was always faithful, as far as isknown, to her tie to Rousseau ; but she was not onlyignorant and illiterate, hut wanting in common under-standing. Rousseau boasts that she could give excel-lent advice on emergencies ; but this common sense didnot lead her to resist the influence of her mother, a lowcunning woman; while Rousseau , not liking to have theburden of her destiny, future as well as present, thrownwholly on himself, felt no inclination, at the commence-ment of their intercourse, when alone it was possible, toseparate her from association with her family, whichtended to keep her vulgar-minded and artful.

Even in his Confessions, where Rousseau discloses hissecret errors, he by no means appreciates the real extentof his misconduct on this occasion. He allied himselfto a girl ivhom he despised too much to allow her atfirst even to share his home ; he took her as a sort of