Chapter XV: 1766-1767. Æt. 55-56 (3)

One might indeed infer, that Hume's inquiries were to discover whether the solitude of Wooton would be likely to be favourable to Rousseau. M. Rougemont thinks it would not. "La solitude," he says, "qui peut cesser quand on veut, peut avoir des charmes; mais je ne puis croire qu'il ne soit pas fort malheureux d'être nécessairement privé de toute société." The rest of his letter is devoted to Parisian literary gossip, with which the banker appears to have been ambitious of showing his acquaintance.

It is not when reviewing the conduct of Hume, but when recalling such observations as those made by Dr. Johnson on Rousseau, that one is tempted to sympathize with M. Musset. Of the rigid moralist's opinions, Boswell gives us the following sketch:

"One evening, at the Mitre, Johnson said sarcastically to me, 'It seems, sir, you have kept very good company abroad: Rousseau and Wilkes!' I answered, with a smile, 'My dear sir, you don't call Rousseau bad company: do you really think _him_ a bad man?' Johnson. 'Sir, if you are talking jestingly of this, I don't talk with you. If you mean to be serious, I think him one of the worst of men; a rascal who ought to be hunted out of society as he has been. Three or four nations have expelled him; and it is a shame that he is protected in this country. Rousseau, sir, is a very bad man. I would sooner sign a sentence for his transportation, than that of any felon who has gone from the Old Bailey these many years. Yes, I should like to have him work in the plantations.'"--Boswell, vol. ii. p. 314, ed. 1835.

[331:1] A scientific gentleman, whose writings on medical jurisprudence are of high authority, and who had read the Hume and Rousseau controversy, observed to me, that Rousseau's case should have been treated as one of monomania.

[332:1] Whoever would notice the practical sagacity of Rousseau's genius, may compare the early part of "Émile," with "Combe on the Management of Infancy," and observe in how many things the theorist and the scientific inquirer coincide.

[333:1] "We have had," says Burke, in his Reflections on the French Revolution, "the great professor and founder of the philosophy of vanity in England. As I had good opportunities of knowing his proceedings, almost from day to day, he left no doubt on my mind that he entertained no principle, either to influence his heart or guide his understanding, but vanity: with this vice he was possessed to a degree little short of madness."

[333:2] D'Alembert writes to Hume, on 4th August:

"Il y a dans la drôle de lettre de _ce joli petit homme_, comme vous l'appelliez autrefois, une phrase sacramentelle ou sacramentale, à laquelle vous n'avez peut-être pas fait autant d'attention qu'elle le mérite; c'est que _le public, qui d'abord avoit eté fort amoureux de lui, commença bientôt après à le négliger_. Voilà ce qui le fâche véritablement, et il s'en prend à qui il peut. Vous vous êtes chargé de montrer l'ours à la foire; sa loge qui d'abord etoit pleine, est bientôt restée vuide, et il vous en rend responsable. Il est d'ailleurs três certain, et je le sçais de Duclos son ami, à qui il l'a dit, ainsi qu'à bien d'autres, qu'il _ne peut pas souffrir toutes les personnes à qui il a obligation_: et sur ce pied là, vous avez bien des droits à sa haine." MS. R.S.E.

[334:1] During his sojourn in England, he was in dread of being kidnapped. The late Professor Walker remembered being asked by Lord Bute to accompany Rousseau on a botanizing excursion on the banks of the Thames, and that he was just explaining something about marine plants being acrid, when a Cockney pic-nic party of youths, dressed as sailors, landed. Rousseau instantly took to his heels! The professor being responsible for his safe restoration, followed, and, after a considerable chase, succeeded in running him down. Rousseau, seeing that there were no other pursuers, passed the matter off by the observation that marine _men_ were acrid. After his return from England, an account for nine francs, which it appears he was not due, was presented against him by a tradesman. He called on all Europe to witness this conspiracy to destroy his character, and raised such an outcry as must have effectually frightened sober tradesmen from overcharging interesting solitaries.

[335:1] Even his trusted friend, Du Peyrou, writing to Hume on 13th February, after many eulogiums on his kindness to the unfortunate, says:--

"C'est sous votre couvert qu' M. Rousseau m'a marqué, Monsieur, que je devois lui écrire: voudriez vous donc avoir la complaisance de lui faire parvenir l'incluse à son adresse." MS. R.S.E.

[337:1] MS. R.S.E.

[337:2] He was a cordial hater of all uncandidness in others, whatever he might be in his own case. Morellet tells a laughable anecdote of Rousseau's presence on an occasion when some of the wicked wits of Paris were what is commonly called "trotting out" a vain poet, and making him say ridiculous things of his own genius. Rousseau, after walking restlessly about the room, burst into a rage, told the poet that he was a poor paltry idiot, and the company were only encouraging him to make game of him.

[338:1] An incident had just happened to make the name of the "quack Tronchin," peculiarly offensive. This distinguished physician had received public honours at Parma. After strenuous popular opposition, he had been permitted to practise the new precautionary remedy of inoculation on the young prince Ferdinand. The experiment had been successful; all Parma, excited by loyal joy, petitioned the Grand-duke to admit the physician to the rank of citizen. A tablet, commemorating the triumph of science, was erected in the town hall, and a medal with suitable devices was struck in honour of the operator. He was a relation of Tronchin the Procureur Général of Geneva, author of _Lettres écrites de la Campagne_, which Rousseau answered in _Lettres de la Montagne_. See him mentioned above, p. 186.

[339:1] Morellet questions if he _could_ have done so, i. 106.

[340:1] The following jeu-d'esprit, which was printed in some of the periodicals of the day, is really a pretty accurate abridgment of Rousseau's paper. It has the appearance of having been written by a Scottish lawyer:--

_Heads of an Indictment laid by J. J. Rousseau, philosopher, against D. Hume, Esq._

1. That the said David Hume, to the great scandal of
philosophy, and not having the fitness of things before his
eyes, did concert a plan with Mess. Tronchin, Voltaire, and
D'Alembert, to ruin the said J. J. Rousseau for ever, by
bringing him over to England, and there settling him to his
heart's content.

2. That the said David Hume did, with a malicious and
traitorous intent, procure, or cause to be procured, by
himself, or somebody else, one pension of the yearly value of
£100 or thereabouts, to be paid to the said J. J. Rousseau, on
account of his being a philosopher, either privately or
publicly, as to him the said J. J. Rousseau should seem meet.

3. That the said David Hume did, one night after he left
Paris, put the said J. J. Rousseau in bodily fear, by talking
in his sleep; although the said J. J. Rousseau doth not know
whether the said David Hume was really asleep, or whether he
shammed Abraham, or what he meant.

4. That, at another time, as the said David Hume and the said
J. J. Rousseau were sitting opposite each other by the
fireside in London, he, the said David Hume, did look at him,
the said J. J. Rousseau, in a manner of which it is difficult
to give any idea: That he, the said J. J. Rousseau, to get rid
of the embarrassment he was under, endeavoured to look full at
him, the said David Hume, in return, to try if he could not
stare him out of countenance; but in fixing his eyes against
his, the said David Hume's, he felt the most inexpressible
terror, and was obliged to turn them away, insomuch that the
said J. J. Rousseau doth in his heart think and believe, as
much as he believes any thing, that he, the said David Hume,
is a certain composition of a white-witch and a rattlesnake.

5. That the said David Hume on the same evening, after
politely returning the embraces of him, the said J. J.
Rousseau, and gently tapping him on the back, did repeat
several times, in a good-natured easy tone, the words, "Why,
what, my dear sir! Nay, my dear sir! Oh, my dear sir!" From
whence the said J. J. Rousseau doth conclude, as he thinks
upon solid and sufficient grounds, that he the said David Hume
is a traitor; albeit he, the said J. J. Rousseau, doth
acknowledge, that the physiognomy of the good David is that of
an honest man, all but those terrible eyes of his, which he
must have borrowed; but he the said J. J. Rousseau vows to God
he cannot conceive from whom or what.

6. That the said David Hume hath more inquisitiveness about
him than becometh a philosopher, and did never let slip an
opportunity of being alone with the governante of him the said
J. J. Rousseau.

7. That the said David Hume did most atrociously and
flagitiously put him, the said J. J. Rousseau, philosopher,
into a passion; as knowing that then he would be guilty of a
number of absurdities.

8. That the said David Hume must have published Mr. Walpole's
letter in the newspapers, because, at that time, there was
neither man, woman, nor child, in the island of Great Britain,
but the said David Hume, the said J. J. Rousseau, and the
printers of the several newspapers aforesaid.

9. That somebody in a certain magazine, and somebody else in a
certain newspaper, said something against him, the said John
James Rousseau, which he, the said J. J. Rousseau, is
persuaded, for the reason abovementioned, could be nobody but
the said David Hume.

10. That the said J. J. Rousseau knows, that he, the said
David Hume, did open and peruse the letters of him, the said
J. J. Rousseau, because he one day saw the said David Hume go
out of the room, after his own servant, who had, at that time,
a letter of the said J. J. Rousseau's in his hands; which
_must_ have been in order to take it from the servant, open
it, and read the contents.

11. That the said David Hume did, at the instigation of the
devil, in a most wicked and unnatural manner, send, or cause
to be sent, to the lodgings of him, the said J. J. Rousseau,
one dish of beefsteaks, thereby meaning to insinuate, that he,
the said J. J. Rousseau, was a beggar, and came over to
England to ask alms: whereas be it known to all men by these
presents, that he, the said John James Rousseau, brought with
him the means of subsistence, and did not come with an empty
purse; as he doubts not but he can live upon his labours--with
the assistance of his friends; and in short can do better
without the said David Hume than with him.

12. That besides all these facts put together, the said J. J.
Rousseau did not like a certain appearance of things on the
whole.

[343:1] "That of the 22d of March, which is full of cordiality, and proves that M. Rousseau had never, to that moment, entertained any of those black suspicions of perfidy which he publishes at present. There is only in that letter a peevish passage about the affair of his chaise."--Hume.

[344:1] Documents of the controversy.

[344:2] Such was his first impulse. He evidently, after viewing the matter more coolly, was disinclined to publish, but he was finally prevailed on to do so.

[345:1] MS. R.S.E.

[346:1] MS. R.S.E.

[346:2] Morellet, i. 105.

[346:3] Priv. Cor. 204.

[348:1] Voltaire et Rousseau par Henry Lord Brougham, App. No. IX. Lord Brougham twice honoured me with an intimation that he had obtained letters of David Hume, in Paris, which were too late for his own "Lives of Men of Letters," and were to be sent to _me_. While thankfully waiting for their arrival, I observed, on the title page of his lordship's French lives of Voltaire and Rousseau, that the book contained "Léttres entièrement inédites de _Hume_." Thinking it not impossible that the letters destined for my use, had thus, by some accident, been diverted from their destination, I have printed them in this book, according to their dates, in the fullest assurance of his lordship's cordial concurrence.

[349:1] MS. R.S.E.

[350:1] D'Holbach.

[351:1] MS. R.S.E.

[352:1]

"_A Paris, le 7 Septembre, 1766._

"J'ai trouvé ici, monsieur, votre lettre de 5 Août, à mon retour d'un voyage que j'ai été faire en Normandie. D'Alembert, qui venoit alors de recevoir votre récit de l'Histoire de Rousseau avec les lettres que vous y avez insérées, me l'a communiqué. Je vous crois à présent si ennuyé de cette affaire que je ne sais si je dois encore vous en parler. M. De Montigni m'a cependant dit que vous désiriez de savoir ma façon de penser. Vous imaginez bien qu'elle ne peut pas être douteuse sur le fond de l'affaire, et je crois qu'excepté Rousseau, et peut-être M{lle.} Le Vasseur, il n'y a personne dans le monde qui s'imagine, ni qui eut jamais imaginé, que vous ayez mené Rousseau en Angleterre pour le trahir, et à qui sa longue lettre et ses démonstrations ne fassent pitié. Mais je vous avoue que j'y vois toujours plus de folie que de noirceur. J'y vois des sophismes dont une imagination se sert pour empoisonner les circonstances les plus simples et les transformer au gré de la manie qui l'occupe. Mais je ne crois point que ces extravagances soient un jeu joué, et un prétexte pour secouer le poids de la reconnoissance qu'il vous doit. Il paroît sentir lui même que personne ne le croira, et qu'il se couvre d'opprobre du moins pour le moment aux yeux du public. Il avoue qu'il sacrifie et son intérêt et même sa réputation: et il est certain que cette affaire lui fait un tort irréparable, l'isole du genre humain, et lui ôte tout appui contre les persécutions auxquelles ses opinions et encore plus ces traits de sa misanthropie l'exposeront toujours. Je persiste donc à ne le croire que fou, et je suis affligé que l'impression trop vive qu'a faite sur vous sa folie vous ait mis dans le cas de la faire éclater et de la rendre irrémédiable; car le bruit qu'à fait votre lettre au Baron, est pour Rousseau une démonstration que ces conjectures étoient fondées sur la vérité même. Il a bien mandé à Madame de Boufflers qu'il ne se plaignoit pas, et que cette lettre qui vous a donné lieu de le diffamer comme le dernier des hommes n'étoit écrite qu'à vous. L'éclat que vous avez fait, lui a fait tout le mal possible, et sa lettre ne vous en a fait aucun. . . . . . . Après vous avoir dit aussi franchement mon avis, vous serez surpris peut-être de me voir presque revenu à l'avis de faire imprimer. La folie de Rousseau est telle qu'il a écrit ici différentes lettres dans lesquelles il regarde votre trahison comme si constante, et les démonstrations comme si terrassantes pour vous, qu'il vous défie de publier les pièces sans vous déshonorer, à moins que vous ne les falsifiez; ce ne sont pas ses termes mais c'en est le sens. Si cette espèce de défi devenoit public à un certain point, et faisoit plus d'impression en Angleterre qu'il n'en peut faire en France, peut-être serez-vous obligé d'imprimer. Mais en ce cas je voudrois retrancher tout réçit, toute imputation de mensonge, toutes notes excepté quelques unes nécessaires pour rétablir simplement les faits importans, comme celui de la scène qui s'est passée la veille de son départ pour Wooton. Encore voudrois-je que dans ces notes vous disiez simplement le fait, sans traiter Rousseau de menteur, sans vous abaisser à le prouver. Vous devez être cru sur ce que vous direz, et vous le serez. Je ne mettrois autre chose à la tête, si non que les discours répandus sur la querelle, &c. et l'espèce de défi que M. Rousseau vous fait d'en publier ce qui s'est passé, vous obligent à regret à publier les accusations de M. Rousseau contre vous, et que vous croyez leur publication une réponse suffisante. Voilà quel est actuellement mon penchant. Mais comme je ne vois à cela rien de pressé, je crois que vous ferez bien de vous donner tout le tems d'y réfléchir. Plus vous mettez dans cette affaire de modération et même d'indifférence, plus le tort de Rousseau deviendra évident."--MS. R.S.E.

[354:1] The original of this letter is in the MSS. R.S.E. It is printed in Priv. Cor. p. 187.

[354:2] MS. R.S.E.

[354:3] "Le hasard a voulu que la plus part de vos amis, et surtout ceux à qui vous me conseillez de lire votre lettre, se soient trouvés rassemblés chez M{lle.} de L'Espinasse presque au moment que je l'ai reçue; Mr. Turgot, Mr. L'Abbé Morellet, Mr. Roux, Mr. Saurin, Mr. Marmontel, Mr. Duclos. Tous unanimement, ainsi que M{lle.} de L'Espinasse et moi sommes d'avis, que vous devez donner cette histoire au public, avec toutes ses circumstances. Voici ce que nous vous conseillons--je dis nous, car je parle ici au nom de tous. Vous commencerez d'abord par dire que vous savez que Rousseau travaille à ses mémoires, qu'il fera sans doute mention de sa querelle avec vous, qui a fait trop de bruit pour qu'il ne cherche pas à la tourner à son avantage, que les mémoires pourront paroître ou après votre mort ou aprés la sienne: que dans le 1{er} cas, comme vous l'observez vous-même, personne ne pourra vous justifier; que dans le second, votre défense seroit sans force; que vous avez donc cru devoir donner vous même toute cette histoire au public, afin que Mr. Rousseau réponde s'il le peut. Ensuite vous entrerez dans le détail, et dans le plus grand détail, mais surtout, et c'est une chose absolument essentielle et que nous vous recommendons tous--vous vous bornerez aux faits, exprimés simplement et nettement, sans aigreur, sans la moindre injure, sans même de réflexions sur le caractère de Rousseau et sur ses écrits; vous rapporterez vos lettres et les siennes; celle qu'il vous a écrite le 23 juin suffiroit seule pour le faire condamner, vous ne direz point, du moins trop souvent, que vous êtes son bienfaiteur--tout le monde le sait assez. Enfin mon cher ami, nous vous recommendons, et nous vous conjurons de mettre dans cette brochure la plus grande modération mais en même temps la plus grande clarté."--MS. R.S.E.

[355:1] Walpole's "Narrative."

[357:1] "Vous devez être bien étonné, Monsieur, de n'avoir encore reçu aucune lettre sur la publication de votre mémoire, et il y a en cela beaucoup de ma faute. J'avois dit à M. D'Alembert que j'aurois l'honneur de vous écrire. Il a compté sur moi. Le Baron D'Holbach a compté sur nous deux, et moi j'ai compté aussi sur eux; voilà ce qui fait qu'il n'y a rien que d'avoir plusieurs domestiques pour être mal servi."

Stating, that he has sent a copy of the collection by post, he proceeds:

"Vous avez désiré que je fusse votre traducteur, et je n'avois pas besoin de tous les sentimens qui m'attachent à vous, pour me charger de ce travail, avec plaisir. Votre cause me paroisoit celle des honnêtes gens et surtout celle des amis de la philosophie. Il y a long-tems que je regardois Rousseau comme un profond et dangereux charlatan, qui avoit passé sa vie à recevoir des bienfaits de tout le monde, et à faire tout le mal qu'il avoit pu à ceux qui lui avaient fait le plus de bien. . . Vous trouverez sans doute, Monsieur, qu'on a pris bien des libertés avec votre texte: il y a beaucoup de passages altérés, et suprimés: mais il n'y a aucun changement qui n'ait été fait par M. D'Alembert ou de son consentement, et toujours pour des raisons que vous aprouverez vraisemblement."

[358:1] New Monthly Magazine, (original series,) No. 72.

[358:2] The letter is dated Ferney, 24th Oct. 1766. Oeuvres de Voltaire, ed. 1789, lxiv. 495. Probably Hume never received this letter. It is not in the MSS. R.S.E., and Voltaire was known to be in the habit of writing to people through the press. Hume, however, states, in a note to the narrative of his controversy, that he had had a letter from Voltaire about three years before. There is no trace of it among his papers.

[360:1] MS. R.S.E.

[360:2] MS. R.S.E.

[360:3] Among those who were eager to peruse these documents, Hume says, writing to Madame de Barbantane, "The King and Queen of England expressed a strong desire to see these papers, and I was obliged to put them into their hands. They read them with avidity, and entertain the same sentiments that must strike every one. The king's opinion confirms me in the resolution not to give them to the public, unless I be forced to it by some attack on the side of my adversary, which it will therefore be wisdom in him to avoid." _Private Correspondence_, p. 210.

[361:1] He says, in a subsequent letter,--"What are become of all the controversies since the days of Scaliger and Scioppius, of Billingsgate memory? Why, they sleep in oblivion, till some Bayle drags them out of their dust, and takes mighty pains to ascertain the date of each author's death, which is of no more consequence to the world than the day of his birth. Many a country squire quarrels with his neighbour about game and manors, yet they never print their wrangles, though as much abuse passes between them, as if they could quote all the Philippics of the learned." We have an instance of what he considered a really important dispute, when he was baffled in his attempt to get his nephew, Lord Orford, married to Miss Nicol, "the vast fortune." "Thus," he says, "had I placed him in a greater situation than even his grandfather hoped to bequeath to him,--had retrieved all the oversights of my family,--had saved Houghton, and all our glory." "I have been forced," he says, writing to Horace Mann, "_to write a narrative_ of the whole transaction; and was with difficulty kept from publishing it."--_Letters_, ii. 401.

[362:1] He did not lose the opportunity afforded by the publication of his pamphlet, for again expressing his contempt of men whose sole claim to notice rested on the greatness of their genius: "For Monsieur D'Alembert," he says, "I said that I was mighty indifferent about seeing him. That it was not my custom to seek authors, who are a conceited troublesome set of people." And hearing that Fréron, the same who was so sharp a thorn in Voltaire's side, had made some remarks on him, which displeased the Duchesse de Choiseul, he says, "I immediately wrote to Paris, to beg the duchess would suffer Fréron and D'Alembert, or any of the tribe, to write what they pleased, to get what money they could by abusing me."

[365:1] This is repeated in a letter to Robertson, of 19th March, and is followed by the statement, "The King, when applied to, said, that since the pension had once been promised, it should be granted, notwithstanding all that had passed in the interval. And thus the affair is happily finished, unless some new extravagance come across the philosopher, and urge him to reject what he has anew applied for."--_Stewart's Life of Robertson._

[365:2] MS. R.S.E.

[366:1] The letter is in the usual editions of Rousseau's works, dated 30th April.

[366:2] The pamphlets produced in England on this subject, were not nearly so numerous as those published in France. Fuseli, whose mind was well suited for such a paradoxical championship, wrote "A defence of M. Rousseau, against the Aspersions of Mr. Hume, Monsieur Voltaire, and their associates." The other pamphlet alluded to in the letter, was, perhaps, "A letter to the Honourable Horace Walpole, concerning the dispute between Mr. Hume and M. Rousseau," by the Rev. Ralph Heathcote, D.D. Hume says, in a letter to Madame de Boufflers, "Agreeably to the licence of this country, there has been a great deal of raillery on the incident, thrown out in the public papers, but all against that unhappy man. There is even a print engraved of it: M. Rousseau is represented as a Yahoo, newly caught in the woods; I am represented as a farmer, who caresses him and offers him some oats to eat, which he refuses in a rage; Voltaire and D'Alembert are whipping him up behind; and Horace Walpole making him horns of _papier mâché_. The idea is not altogether absurd."--_Private Correspondence_, p. 234.

[367:1] MS. R.S.E.

[370:1] Walpole, whose capacity for acquiring information on such matters was unrivalled, seems to have at least made a near approach to the discovery of this point. He says in his narration, "The chief cause of his disgust has been a long quarrel between his housekeeper and Mr. Davenport's cook-maid, who, as Rousseau affirmed, had always dressed their dinner very ill, and at last had sprinkled ashes on their victuals."

[371:1] MS. R.S.E.

[372:1] These incidents are also narrated in a letter to Madame de Boufflers.--_Priv. Cor._ p. 241. And some of them in a French letter to a person unknown, ib. p. 220.

[373:1] See the letter following that of 30th April to Mr. Davenport, in the ordinary editions of Rousseau's works. The only material divergence in the passage cited above is in the last clause, and the words "quelques indiscrettes plaintes qui lui sont quelquefois echappées dans le fort de ses peines," to which the corresponding clause in Rousseau's Works, is "les plaintes indiscrettes, qui dans le fort de ses peines, lui sont quelquefois échappées." These discrepancies were probably between Rousseau's preserved copy, and the letter sent. That this letter was printed from a copy preserved by Rousseau, is shown by the editors of his Works not knowing to whom it was addressed. Hume repeats his own version of the passage in a French letter already referred to. See _Private Correspondence_, p. 222.

[374:1] MS. R.S.E.

[378:1] _Literary Gazette_, 1822, p. 649. Corrected from original MS. R.S.E.

[379:1] He assumed the name of Renou.

[380:1] MS. R.S.E.

[381:1] On 1st June, 1767, Turgot writes, in answer to a letter from Hume: "Je me hâte d'y répondre par ce courier, quoique je n'aie encore fait aucune démarche pour le malheureux homme auquel, il est si digne de vous de prendre encore intérêt. Le degré de folie qu'il montre aujourdhui est en vérité préférable à une folie moins exaltée, qui le laissoit chargé de tout l'odieux d'un excès d'ingratitude envers vous et M. Davenport. Une pareille ingratitude réfléchie et méditée ne peut me paroître dans la nature. . . . Je vous remercie de m'avoir choisi parmi vos amis de ce pays-ci pour m'associer à la bonne action que vous voulez faire en lui rendant service. J'y mettrai certainement tout le zèle dont je suis capable et à cause de son infortune, et à cause de l'intérêt que vous y prenez." He continues to say, that to get him a safe passage may be easy: to find him a permanent asylum in France, would be a more difficult matter. "La chose est possible hors du ressort du Parlement de Paris, mais il faut que le Roi y consente. Il n'y a que l'intérêt même que vous prenez, et la singularité de cette circonstance qui puisse peut-être adoucir le Roi sur le compte de Rousseau en faisant demander la chose en votre nom par M. de Choiseul."