wholesome practical maxims, as if they flowed from theoretical
premisses that were in truth utterly incompatible with them.

FOOTNOTES:

[151] Delandine's _Couronnes Academiques, ou Recueil de prix proposes
par les Societes Savantes_. (Paris, 2 vols., 1787.)

[152] Musset-Pathay has collected the details connected with the award
of the prize, ii. 365-367.

[153] Second Letter to M. de Malesherbes, p. 358. Also _Conf._, viii.
135.

[154] Diderot's account (_Vie de Seneque_, sect. 66, _Oeuv._, iii. 98;
also ii. 285) is not inconsistent with Rousseau's own, so that we may
dismiss as apocryphal Marmontel's version of the story (_Mem._ VIII.),
to the effect that Rousseau was about to answer the question with a
commonplace affirmative, until Diderot persuaded him that a paradox
would attract more attention. It has been said also that M. de
Francueil, and various others, first urged the writer to take a
negative line of argument. To suppose this possible is to prove one's
incapacity for understanding what manner of man Rousseau was.

[155] _Conf._, ix. 232, 233.

[156] _Rousseau Juge de Jean Jacques, Dialogues_, i. 252.

[157] _Dialogues_, i. 275, 276.

[158] _Conf._, viii. 138.

[159] "It made a kind of revolution in Paris," says Grimm. _Corr.
Lit._, i. 108.

[160] _Rep. au Roi de Pologne_, p. 111 and p. 113.

[161] _Rep. a M. Bordes_, 138.

[162] _Ib._ 137.

[163] "The first source of the evil is inequality; from inequality
come riches ... from riches are born luxury and idleness; from luxury
come the fine arts, and from idleness the sciences." _Rep. au Roi de
Pologne_, 120, 121.

[164] _Rep. a M. Bordes_, 147. In the same spirit he once wrote the
more wholesome maxim, "We should argue with the wise, and never with
the public." _Corr._, i. 191.

[165] _Rep. au Roi de Pologne_, 128, 129.

[166] _Rep. a M. Bordes_, 150-161.

[167] P. 174.

[168] Egger's _Hellenisme en France_, 28ieme lecon, p. 265.

[169] Voltaire to J.J.R. Aug. 30, 1755.

[170] _Rep. au Roi de Pologne_, 105.

[171] In 1753 the French Academy, by way no doubt of summoning a
counter-blast to Rousseau, boldly offered as the subject of their
essay the thesis that "The love of letters inspires the love of
virtue," and the prize was won fitly enough by a Jesuit professor of
rhetoric. See Delandine, i. 42.

[172] Preface to _Narcisse_, 251.

[173] _Rep. a M. Bordes_, 167.

[174] P. 187.

[175] See for instance a strange discussio