266 LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN.

affection of her mother, and the attachment of herfriends, with renewed delight. The account she givesof the many proposals she received, and the way inwhich they were finally dismissed, is one of the mostamusing portions of her book, and affords a pleasant andvivid picture of the French system with regard to mar-riages.

Her mother’s health became enfeebled, and this ex-cellent parent regarded her daughter’s future prospectswith anxiety. Phlipon had become careless in his bu-siness ; his customers deserted him, his speculationsfailed ; he grew fond of pleasure, and habits of industrywere thrown aside. His wife was aware of the advancesof poverty, and of the slight confidence she could placein her husband ; she reasoned with her daughter, andtried to persuade her to accept the offer of a young jew-eller, who had youth and good habits to recommend him ;but Manon shrunk from uniting herself with one whomshe could not regard as the sharer of her studies nor theguide of her conduct.

Her mother died suddenly of paralysis. MadameRoland gives a vivid picture of the affliction she felt onthis event, which conducted her to the brink of the grave.It was long before she could be roused from the intensegrief that overwhelmed both mind and body. She becameincapable of application, and struggled in vain to cast offthe melancholy that made her a burden to herself andothers. By degrees, her regrets grew less passionate andmore tender. At this moment a friend, abbe Legrand,put the “ Nouvelle Heloise” into her hands, — it suc-ceeded in exciting her attention, and in calling herthoughts from her loss. “ I was twenty-one,” shesays, “ and Rousseau made the same impression onme then as Plutarch had done when I was eight.Plutarch had disposed me to republicanism, — he hadawakened the energy and pride which are its cha-racteristics ; he inspired me with a true enthusiasm forpublic virtue and freedom. Rousseau showed me do-mestic happiness and the ineffable felicity I was capable