Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/350

* ROUSSEAU. 318 ROUSSEAU. family of tlio (JranJ I'licur tie Mably, a brother of luo ilistiiifjuislied writers of the time, the Abb6 lie ilably anil tlie philosopher Condillae. In 1741 Rousseau arrived in Paris, dependin;^ for his fortune upon a new and ingenious system of writing nnisie. He laid his plan before the Koyal Academy of Seienecs, from which he re- ceived praise but no indorsement. Though baffled in his expectations, he had by the bringing for- ward of his musical investigations gained access to the most intellectual circles of Paris. He soon became a kind of secretary in the highly gifted family of JIadanie Dupin, the wife of one of the wealthy farmers-general, and her stepson, M. de l-'rancueil, and shortly afterwards he was, through their influence, engaged in the same ca- pacity by tlie Count de Montaigu, who had been appointed Minister of the King of France at Venice. For his new position the knowledge of Italian acquired by hira in Turin gave Rousseau special htness. His employer was wholly unable to understand his young secretary's mental su- periority and to avoid inflicting upon him hu- miliating treatment. Rousseau left him, full of anger and indignation, and returned to Paris, where he expected to find justice for himself and punishment for his persecutor, but he soon dis- covered that for a man of the people to obtain redress for a wrong inflicted upon him by a mem- ber of the aristocracy was a thing not possible in France at that time. This was the first experi- ence that led him to think of the system of social distinctions tlien in existence, and to examine whether any pliilosophical justification for them existed. He resumed his position near M. de Fran- cueil and mingled more than ever with the world of artists, thinkers, and writers. He wrote for the stage, remodeled for the Court of Louis XV., with the consent of the author, Voltaire's dra- matic cantata La Princesse de Naimrre, which he renamed Les fetes de Ramire, and took sides pas- sionately in the conflict then raging in Paris be- tween French and Italian music. He defended the latter in the first of his numerous polemical writings, the Lettre siir la miisique frangaise (1748). While in contact not only with refined society, but with thinkers like Diderot, D'AIem- bert, and Grimm, whom he considered in no way his superiors, Rousseau met Ther6se Levasseur. a young woman not above the condition of a ser- vant, totally illiterate, according to Rousseau himself, ithout marriage, he made her his per- manent companion. Soon he was saddled not only with Ther&se herself, but with her father and mother and the rest of the family. If we raa.y believe Rousseau's Confessions, he was fully conscious of the unworthiness of the surround- ings thus created by him for himself. He is him- self authority for the statement that Th^r^se bore him several children, and that every one of these children was carried by him immediately after birth to the Home for Foundlings. Rousseau was now on the eve of celebrity. In 1750 he published a short discourse in answer to the question propounded by the Academy of Dijon, whether the reestablishment of sciences and arts had resulted in making morals purer. He answered negatively, but with such a force of eloquence and declamation that the Academy awarded him the prize, and the publication of his paper made him illustrious. An opera, of which he had w-ritten both words and music. Le devin du village, was performed with great applause first before the Court, at I'ontaincbleau, tlien at the Paris Upera. More and more, liowcver, he moved away from the bright Paris circles. He grew displeased with a social order in which lie knew that he could not occupy a position in keeping with his mental superiority. This ap- peared when in 1754 be published his first impor- tant work, again an answer to a question pro- pounded by the Academy of Dijon, as to the origin of inequality among men and whether it is justified by the law of nature. Of course again his answer was a negative one; but this time, although in style and argument the Dis- cours sur I'ineyalitc is vastly superior to the Discuurs sur les sciences et les arts:, the Academy dared not reward him with a prize. Before a society which was a curious blending of auto- cratic power and aristocratic privileges he had laid the claims of all men to an equal share not only in the government, but in the enjoyment of nature's blessings. He was henceforth acknowledged a democrat, an advocate of the people. He would yield no more to aristocratic prejudices. He discarded the elegant dress of good societ}-, ceased to act as secretary' for members of the privileged classes, and announced that he would earn his living as a copyist of music. Ambition, however, had not forsaken him. His eyes turned toward his na- tive State, to which he had dedicated his book. He visited Geneva, was welcomed with the high- est honors, gave up Catholicism, and thus was allowed to resume his rights as a citizen: and when he left Geneva in order to return to Paris everybody understood that it was with the in- tention of soon coming back for good and compet- ing for the municipal honors so dear to the heart of every citizen of the tiny Republic, Rousseau never returned to Geneva. Voltaire soon settled there himself, and Jeau .Jacques concluded that both could not live near each other in so small a place. His break with society was soon followed by similar treatment of his friends. Diderot and D'Alembert were then publishing their famous Enci/clopcdie, to which Rousseau had originally contributed articles on music, and also on politi- cal economy. But he had ceased to sympathize with a work the chief doctrine of which was that the happiness of mankind was bound up with the progress of enlightenment. He first simply moved away from Paris, not very far, to the Hermitage, a small house sur- rounded by woodlands on the estate of La Chev- rette. which belonged to his friend, the wealthy and sprightly Madame d'Epinay (175). But he soon quarreled with Grimm, Diderot, and Madame d'Epinay herself. In December, 1757, he left the Hermitage, where he had been Madame d'Epinay's guest, and moved to the village of Montmorency, near by. There he enjoyed the companionship, and to a certain extent the hos- pitality, of the ^Marshal Duke of Luxembourg, Rousseau's masterpieces were written at the Hermitage and in Montmorency. After his Letter on Providence, addressed to Voltaire, in reply to the latter's poem on the Lisbon earthquake, he had written, as his declaration of war against not Voltaire alone, but all his old associates, the Lettre A d'Alembert contre les spectacles, in which he condenms the stage as a school of im- morality. But these two comparatively slight works were shortly followed by Julie, ou la nouvelle Helo'ise "(1760); Du contrat social