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What a pitiful and wretched picture of society does allthis present! People of refinement, of education, andgenius, — Rousseau , a man so richly gifted with talent—Diderot , enthusiastic on the subject of every social duty— Grimm,a man of sense—madame d’Epinay, awomanof talent, whose disposition was injured by the stateand opinions of society, but who was naturally generous,confiding, and friendly, ■— yet each and all acting withintolerance and bitterness. The passions were the sourcesof these dissensions, — Rousseau ’s for madame d’Houde-tot—Grimm’s for madame d’Epinay ; —but why shouldnot these feelings have inspired toleration and kindness ?They were fostered unfortunately by temper and vanity.Each had microscopic eyes for the faults of the other —neither could perceive his own. Had they at oncedismissed their mutual cavillings, reproaches, and ex-planations, and gone their own way in silence andtoleration, they might have been unhappy, — for suchmust be the result of illicit love, — hut they had notpresented to all the world, and to posterity, so humblinga proof of the worthlessness of talent in directing thecommon concerns of life.
Rousseau , of course, at once quitted the Plermitage.Pie had a horror of entering Paris : he was greatly em-barrassed as to where to go, when M. Mathas, procu-reur-fiscal to the prince of Conde, hearing of his un-comfortable situation, offered him a small house in hisgarden of Mont Louis, at Montmorenci: he accepted it atonce, and removed thither. But his soul was still in tu-mults ; still passion convulsed his heart, which wouldnot be at peace. He desired to establish a friendshipbetween himself, St. Lambert, and madame d’Houde-tot; but they drew back — from the alleged motive that“ Rousseau’s attachment was the talk of Paris , and thattherefore she could not have any intercourse with him."It was likely enough that the old woman, le Vasseur, ortwenty others, might have been the cause of this gossip ;hut Rousseau chose to fix the blame on Diderot , and toquarrel with him outright. Strange that these sensitivel 2