domestic establishment. His mistress, whom towards the close
of his life he married after a fashion, was Thérése le Vasseur, a
servant at the inn, whom he first met in 1743. She had little
beauty, no education or understanding, and few charms that
his friends could discover, besides which she had a detestable
mother, who was the bane of Rousseau's life. But he made
himself happy with her, and (according to Rousseau's account,
the accuracy of which has been questioned) five children were
born to them, who were all consigned to the foundling hospital.
This disregard of responsibility was partly punished by the use
his critics made of it when he became celebrated as a writer on
education and a preacher of the domestic affections.1 Diderot,
with -whom from 1741 onwards he became more and more
familiar, admitted him as a contributor to the Encyclopédie.
He formed new musical projects, and he was introduced by
degrees to many people of rank and influence, among them
Madame d'Epinay (q.v.), to Whom in 1747 he was introduced
by her lover M. de Francueil. It was not, however, till 1749
that Rousseau made his mark 'as a writer. The academy of
Dijon offered a prize for an essay on the effect of the progress
of civilization on morals. Rousseau took up the subject,
developed his famous paradox of the superiority of the savage
state, won the prize, and, publishing his essay (Discours snr les
arts et sciences) next year, became famous. The anecdotage as
to the origin of this famous essay is voluminous. It is agreed
that the idea was suggested when Rousseau went to pay a visit
to Diderot, who was in prison at Vincennes for his Lettre sur les
aveugles. Rousseau says he thought of the paradox on his
way down; Morellet and others say that he thought of treating
the subject in the ordinary fashion and was laughed at by
Diderot, who showed him the advantages of the less obvious
treatment. Diderot himself, who in such matters, is almost
absolutely trustworthy, does not claim the suggestion, but
uses words which imply that it was at least partly his. It is
very like him. The essay, however, took the artificial and
crotchety society of the day by storm. Francueil gave Rousseau
a valuable post as cashier in the receiver-general's office. But
he resigned it either from conscientiousness, or crotchet, or nervousness
at responsibility, or indolence, or more probably from a
mixture of all four. He went back tolhis music-copying, but
the salons of the day were determined to have his society, and
for a time they had it. In 1752 he brought out at Fontainebleau
an operetta, the Devin du village, which was successful. He
received a hundred louis for it, and he was ordered to come to
court next day. This meant the certainty of a pension. But
Rousseau's shyness or his perversity (as before, probably both)
made him disobey the command. His comedy Narcisse,
written long before, was also acted, but unsuccessfully. In the
same year, however, a letter Sur la musique française again
had a great vogue.” Finally, for this was an important year
1 Apart from the fact that there were probably no children at all,
the whole bearing of the belief of Rousseau that they were sent by
him to the Enfants trouvés has been falsified by hostile writers. He
was a penniless man of letters, with theories as to state maintenance
of children; and Therese was a consenting party. Rousseau,
however, never saw any of the alleged children; and Mrs Macdonald
has shown good cause for believing that their existence was
a myth, an imposition on Rousseau's credulity, invented by Thérese
and her mother to make the tie more binding. (H. CH.)
2 Rousseau's influence on French music was greater than might
have been expected from his very imperfect education; in truth, he
was a musician by natural instinct only, but his feeling for art was
very strong, and, though capricious, based upon true perceptions of
the good and beautiful. The system of notation (by figures) concerning
which he read a paper before the Académie des Sciences,
August 22, 1742, was ingenious, but practically worse than useless,
and failed to attract attention, though the paper was published in
1743 under the title of Dissertation snr la musique moderne. In the
famous “ guerre des buffons, " he took the part of the “ buffonists, "
so named in consequence of their attachment to the Italian “ opera
buffa, " as opposed to the true French opera; and, in his Lettre sur la
musiquepfrangaise, published in 1753, he indulged in a violent tirade
against rench music, which he declared to be so contemptible as to
lead to the conclusion “ that the French neither have, nor ever will
have, any music of their own, or at least that, if they ever do have
any, it will be so much the worse for them." This silly libel so
enraged the performers at the Opera that they hanged and burned
with him, the Dijon academy, which had founded his fame,
announced the subject of “ The Origin of Inequality, ” on which
he wrote a discourse which was unsuccessful, but at least equal
to the former in merit. During a visit to Geneva in 1754
Rousseau saw his old friend and love Madame de Warens (now
reduced in circumstances and having lost all her charms), while
after abjuring his abjuration of Protestantism he was enabled
to take up his freedom as citizen of Geneva, to which his birth
entitled 'him and of which he was proud. Shortly afterwards,
returning to Paris, he accepted a cottage near Montmorency
(the celebrated Hermitage) which Madame d'Epinay had fitted
up for him, and established himself there in April 1756. He
spent little more than a year there, but it was an important year.
Here he wrote La Nouvelle H éloise; here he indulged in the
passion which that novel partly represents, his love for Madame
d'Huodetot, sister-in-law of Madame d'Epinay, a lady young
and amiable, but plain, who had a husband and a lover (St
Lambert), and whom Rousseau's devotion seems to have
partly pleased and partly annoyed. Here too arose the obscure
triangular quarrel between Diderot, Rousseau and Frederick
Melchior Grimm, which ended Rousseau's sojourn at the Hermitage.
The supposition least favourable to Rousseau is that it
was due to one of his numerous fits of half-insane petulance
and indignation at the obligations which he was nevertheless
always ready to incur. That most favourable to him is that he
was expected to lend himself in a more or less complaisant
manner to assist and cover Madame d'F.pinay's adulterous
affection for Grimm. At any rate, Rousseau quitted the Hermitage
in the winter of 1757-58, and established himself at
Montlouis in the neighbourhood.
Hitherto Rousseau's behaviour had frequently made him enemies, but his writings had for the most part made him friends. The quarrel with Madame d'Epinay, with Diderot, and through them with the philosopher party reversed this. In 1758 appeared 'his Lettre d d'Alernbert contre les spectacles, written in the winter of the previous year at Montlouis. This was at once an attack on Voltaire, who was giving theatrical representations at Les Délices, on D'Alembert, who had condemned the prejudice against the stage in the Encyclopédie, and on one of the favourite amusements of the society of the day. Voltaire's strong point was not forgiveness, and, though Rousseau no doubt exaggerated the efforts of his “ enemies, ” he was certainly henceforward as obnoxious to the philosopher coterie as to the orthodox party. He still, however, had no lack of patrons-he never had—though his perversity made him quarrel with all in turn. The amiable duke and duchess of Luxembourg, who were his neighbours at Montlouis, made his acquaintance, or rather forced theirs upon him, and he was industrious in his literary work-indeed, most of his best books were produced during his stay in the neighbourhood of its author in effigy. Rousseau revenged himself by printing his clever satire entitled Lettre d'un symphaniste de l'A cadémie Royale de Musique a ses camarades de l'orchestra. His Lettre a M . Burney is of a very different type, and does full justice to the genius of Gluck. His articles on music in the Encyclopédie deal very superficially with the subject; and his Dictionnaire de musique (Geneva, 1767), though admirably written, is not trustworthy, either as a record of facts or as a collection of critical essays. In all these works the imperfection of his musical education is painfully apparent, and his compositions betray an equal lack of knowledge, though his refined taste is as clearly displayed there as is his literary powerin the Letters and Dictionary. His first opera, Les Muses galantes, privately prepared at the house of La Popeliniere, attracted very little attention; but Le Devin du village, given at Fontainebleau in 1752, and at the Académie in, 1753, achieved a great and well-deserved success. Though very unequal, and exceedingly simple both in style and construction, it contains some charming melodies, and is written throughout in the most refined taste. His Pygmalion (1775) is a melodrama without singing. Some posthumous fragments of another opera, Daphnis et Chloé, were printed in 1780; and in 1781 appeared Les Consolations des miséres de ma vie, a collection of about one hundred songs and other fugitive pieces of very unequal merit. The popular air known as “ Rousseau's Dream ” is not contained in this collection, and cannot be traced back farther than ]. B. Cramer's celebrated “ Variations.” M. Castil-Blaze has accused Rousseau of extensive plagiarisms (or worse) in Le Devin du village and Pygmalion, but apparently without sufficient cause. (W. S. R.)
