Produced by David Widger
THE CONFESSIONS OF JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU
(In 12 books)
Privately Printed for the Members of the Aldus Society
London, 1903
BOOK V.
It was, I believe, in 1732, that I arrived at Chambery, as alreadyrelated, and began my employment of registering land for the king. I wasalmost twenty-one, my mind well enough formed for my age, with respect tosense, but very deficient in point of judgment, and needing everyinstruction from those into whose hands I fell, to make me conduct myselfwith propriety; for a few years' experience had not been able to cure meradically of my romantic ideas; and notwithstanding the ills I hadsustained, I knew as little of the world, or mankind, as if I had neverpurchased instruction. I slept at home, that is, at the house of Madamde Warrens; but it was not as at Annecy: here were no gardens, no brook,no landscape; the house was dark and dismal, and my apartment the mostgloomy of the whole. The prospect a dead wall, an alley instead of astreet, confined air, bad light, small rooms, iron bars, rats, and arotten floor; an assemblage of circumstances that do not constitute avery agreeable habitation; but I was in the same house with my bestfriend, incessantly near her, at my desk, or in chamber, so that I couldnot perceive the gloominess of my own, or have time to think of it.It may appear whimsical that she should reside at Chambery on purpose tolive in this disagreeable house; but it was a trait of contrivance whichI ought not to pass over in silence. She had no great inclination for ajourney to Turin, fearing that after the recent revolutions, and theagitation in which the court yet was, she should not be very favorablyreceived there; but her affairs seemed to demand her presence, as shefeared being forgotten or ill-treated, particularly as the Count deSaint-Laurent, Intendent-general of the Finances, was not in herinterest. He had an old house in Chambery, ill-built, and standing in sodisagreeable a situation that it was always untenanted; she hired, andsettled in this house, a plan that succeeded much better than a journeyto Turin would have done, for her pension was not suppressed, and theCount de Saint-Laurent was ever after one of her best friends.
Her household was much on the old footing; her faithful Claude Anet stillremained with her. He was, as I have before mentioned, a peasant ofMoutru, who in his childhood had gathered herbs in Jura for the purposeof making Swiss tea; she had taken him into her service for his knowledgeof drugs, finding it convenient to have a herbalist among her domestics.Passionately fond of the study of plants, he became a real botanist, andhad he not died young, might have acquired as much fame in that scienceas he deserved for being an honest man. Serious even to gravity, andolder than myself, he was to me a kind of tutor, commanding respect, andpreserving me from a number of follies, for I dared not forget myselfbefore him. He commanded it likewise from his mistress, who knew hisunderstanding, uprightness, and inviolable attachment to herself, andreturned it. Claude Anet was of an uncommon temper. I never encountereda similar disposition: he was slow, deliberate, and circumspect in hisconduct; cold in his manner; laconic and sententious in his discourse;yet of an impetuosity in his passions, which (though careful to conceal)preyed upon him inwardly, and urged him to the only folly he evercommitted; that folly, indeed was terrible, it was poisoning himself.This tragic scene passed soon after my arrival, and opened my eyes to theintimacy that subsisted between Claude Anet and his mistress, for had notthe info