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of Prussia, fabricated by Horace Walpole : he began tosuspect that Hume allied himself to his detractors andenemies, and he renounced all commerce with him. Sofar indeed were his suspicions founded, that Hume hadchanged his opinion with regard to him. He stillspoke of him as the most delightful man in the world,when in good humour, but found his distrust and sus-picions, and accesses of melancholy, detract from thepleasure which his society afforded. He had joined alsoin the laugh raised by Walpole’s letter, which, consi-dering that Rousseau was his peculiar guest and friend,was indelicate and insulting. Brooding in loneliness,with only the ignorant, mischief-making Therese for acompanion, during a dreary English winter, Rousseau ’smind, ever distrustful, at once became fraught withsuspicion. He felt himself deserted by Hume, — hebelieved himself to be betrayed. Living in obscurityand neglect in a country of the language of which hew r as ignorant, his imagination suggested that his enemieshad entered into a combination to keep him there, soto gain an opportunity, undetected, of falsifying hiswritings and calumniating his character. These thoughtsfermented in his brain till a species of insanity ensued.He fancied that all his letters were opened ; that hewas, in a manner, imprisoned at Wotton ; and that theobject of his enemies was to seize on his “ Confessionsthe knowledge of their existence having excited thispersecution. A pension of 100k a year, which was con-ferred on him by George III . in honourable terms, didnot appease his anxieties nor calm the fever of hismind. Under the dominion of these false ideas,—suddenly, after a year’s residence, during which he hadbeen treated with singular consideration and kindness,he left Wotton, traversed England, embarked; andwhen he arrived at Calais congratulated himself on hisescape, as if honour and life had depended on it. Theletter he left behind addressed to Mr. Davenport, andthose he wrote to his friends, accusing his English protectors of treachery, and denouncing an universal

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