Volume 1

Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau / Jean Jacques Rousseau.

  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Date:
1931
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau / Jean Jacques Rousseau. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    BOOK V [1732-1736] I think it was in 1732 that, as I have just related, I arrived at Chamberi, and commenced land-surveying in the King’s service. I was nearly twenty-one years of age. For my age, my mind was sufficiently well formed ; not so my powers of judgment, and I sorely needed instruction from those into whose hands I fell, in order to learn how to conduct myself sensibly ; for my few years of experience had not been sufficient to cure me completely of my romantic fancies ; and, in spite of all the sufferings I had en¬ dured, I knew as little of the world and mankind, as if I had never paid dearly for my knowledge of them. I lived at home, that is to say, with mamma ; but I never found my room at Annecy again. No garden, no brook, no landscape ! The house which she occupied was dark and gloomy, and my room was the darkest and gloomiest in the house. A wall to look out upon, a blind alley instead of a street, very little air, light, or room ; crickets, rats, rotten boards—all combined to make a by no means pleasant abode. But I was in her house, I was near her ; always at my desk, or in her room, I did not notice the ugliness of my own ; I had no time to think of it. It will appear singular that she should have settled at Chamberi on purpose to live in this wretched house; but it was a piece of cleverness on her part, which I must not omit to explain. She very much disliked the idea of going to Turin, as she felt that, after the recent changes that had taken place there, and during the present excitement at the Court, it was not the right moment to present herself. However, her affairs required her presence; she was afraid of being forgotten or slandered, especially as she knew that the Comte de Saint-Laurent, Intendant-General of Finance, was not favourably disposed to¬ wards her. He had an old house at Chamberi, badly built, and so disagreeably situated, that it was always empty ; she took it, and settled there. This plan succeeded better than a journey to Turin ; her pension was not discontinued, and from that time the Comte de Saint-Laurent was always one of her best friends. I found her household arrangements much the same as before, and the faithful Claude Anet still with her. I believe I have already stated that he was a peasant from Moutru, who, in his