per, and the train of reflections which it would be sure to set
aflame, are to be foreseen by us who know Rousseau's fashion of dealing
with the irksome. Why sacrifice the peace and charm of the little
fragment of days left to him, to the bondage of an office for which he
felt nothing but disgust? How reconcile the austere principles which he
had just adopted in his denunciation of sciences and arts, and his
panegyric on the simplicity of the natural life, with such duties as he
had to perform? And how preach disinterestedness and frugality from amid
the cashboxes of a receiver-general? Plainly it was his duty to pass in
independence and poverty the little time that was yet left to him, to
bring all the forces of his soul to bear in breaking the fetters of
opinion, and to carry out courageously whatever seemed best to himself,
without suffering the judgment of others to interpose the slightest
embarrassment or hindrance.[207]

With Rousseau, to conceive a project of this kind for simplifying his
life was to hasten urgently towards its realisation, because such
projects harmonised with all his strongest predispositions. His design
mastered and took whole possession of him. He resolved to earn his
living by copying music, as that was conformable to his taste, within
his capacity, and compatible with entire personal freedom. His patron
did as the world is so naturally ready to do with those who choose the
stoic's way; he declared that Rousseau was gone mad.[208] Talk like this
had no effect on a man whom self-indulgence led into a path that others
would only have been forced into by self-denial. Let it be said,
however, that this is a form of self-indulgence of which society is
never likely to see an excess, and meanwhile we may continue to pay it
some respect as assuredly leaning to virtue's side. Rousseau's many
lapses from grace perhaps deserve a certain gentleness of treatment,
after the time when with deliberation and collected effort he set
himself to the hard task of fitting his private life to his public
principles. Anything that heightens the self-respect of the race is good
for us to behold, and it is a permanent source of comfort to all who
thirst after reality in teachers, whether their teaching happens to be
our own or not, to find that the prophet of social equality was not a
fine gentleman, nor the teacher of democracy a hanger-on to the silly
skirts of fashion.

Rousseau did not merely throw up a post whic