ROUSSEAU.

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le Vasseurs, mother and daughter, had no desire to passthe winter, away from their Parisian acquaintance, in theforest of Montmorenci. They complained bitterly, andDiderot wrote to remonstrate with Rousseau . To read hisletter, you would imagine that his friend thought of win-tering at theNorth Pole ; his earnestness on stiltson sucha petty'occasion ought to have excited a smile; it gavebirth to a storm in the breast of the sensitive philosopher—this was at last appeased—but still the thunder growled.The unfortunate passion of Rousseau for madamed’Houdetot at first made him solitary and abstracted —then miserable. Every demonstration of suffering wasinterpreted as springing from melancholy engenderedby solitude.

His other friend, Grimm, was German, who had ap-peared in Paris in an obscure situation, as tutor to thechildren of the count de Schomberg. Rousseau was one of his first acquaintance ; their common love of musicbrought them together. Grimm was aman of ambition asfar as society went. His personal affectations did not stopat brushing his nails, — a mark of effeminacy indig-nantly related by Rousseau, —but by painting his cheekswhite and red, which gained for him the nickname ofTyran le Blanc. Rousseau introduced him to madamed’Epinay. This lady was suffering bitterly from theinfidelity of her lover Franceuil; — she permitted herselfto be consoled by Grimm; who, while he became I’amide maison, seems to have determined that he should besingle in that character. Fie did all he could to under-mine Rousseau with madame d’Epinay, inducing herto resent his faults, his sensitiveness, his imperious callsfor sympathy and service, which she had hitherto re-garded with affectionate indulgence. She was slow tosubmit to the law, and placed him in the Hermitageagainst Grimm’s will; — to eject him from this abodewas the aim of his false friend.

Of course, there are a thousand contradictions in thevarious accounts given of these quarrels; and we seekthe truth rather from the letters written at the time, if

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