[123] _Conf._, vii. 101. A short specimen of her composition may be interesting, at any rate to hieroglyphic students: "Mesiceuras ancor mien re mies quan geu ceures o pres deu vous, e deu vous temoes tous la goies e latandres deu mon querque vous cones ces que getou gour e rus pour vous, e qui neu finiraes quotobocs ces mon quere qui vous paleu ces paes mes le vre ... ge sui avestous lamities e la reu conec caceu posible e la tacheman mon cher bonnamies votreau enble e bon amiess theress le vasseur." Of which dark words this is the interpretation:--"Mais il sera encore mieux remis quand je sera auprès de vous, et de vous témoigner toute la joie et la tendresse de mon coeur que vous connaissez que j'ai toujours eue pour vous, et qui ne finira qu'au tombeau; c'est mon coeur qui vous parle, c'est pas mes lèvres.... Je suis avec toute l'amitié et la reconnaissance possibles, et l'attachement, mon cher bon ami, votre humble et bonne amie, Thérèse Le Vasseur." (_Rousseau, ses Amis et ses Ennemis_, ii. 450.) Certainly it was not learning and arts which hindered Theresa's manners from being pure. [124] _Oeuv. et Corr. Inéd._, 365. [125] _Conf._, vii. 102. See also _Corr._, v. 373 (Oct. 10, 1768). On the other hand, _Conf._, ix. 249. [126] M. St. Marc Girardin, in one of his admirable papers on Rousseau, speaks of him as "a bourgeois unclassed by an alliance with a tavern servant" (_Rev. des Deux Mondes_, Nov. 1852, p. 759); but surely Rousseau had unclassed himself long before, in the houses of Madame Vercellis, Count Gouvon, and even Madame de Warens, and by his repudiation, from the time when he ran away from Geneva, of nearly every bourgeois virtue and bourgeois prejudice. [127] _Conf._, vii. 11. Also footnote. [128] _Rêveries_, ix. 309. [129] _Conf._, viii. 142, 143. [130] The other day I came for the first time upon the following in the sayings of Madame de Lambert:--"Ce ne sont pas toujours les fautes qui nous perdent; c'est la manière de se conduire aprés les avoir faites." [1877.] [131] _Conf._, xii. 187, 188. [132] _Ib._, viii. 221. [133] Bernardin de St. Pierre, _Oeuv._, xii. 103. See _Conf._, xii 188, and _Corr._, v. 324. [134] Referring, no doubt, to the ceremony which he called their marriage, and which had taken place in 1768. [135] _Corr._, vi. 79-86. August 12, 1769. [136] Composed in 1745. The _Fêtes de Ramire_ was represented at Versailles at the very end of this year. [137] Some time in 1746-7. _Conf._, vii. 113, 114. [138] Probably in the winter of 1746-7. _Corr._, ii. 207. _Conf._, vii. 120-124. _Ib._, viii. 148. _Corr._, ii. 208. June 12, 1761, to the Maréchale de Luxembourg. [139] George Sand,--in an eloquent piece entitled _À Propos des Charmettes (Revue des Deux Mondes_, November 15, 1863), in which she expresses her own obligations to Jean Jacques. In 1761 Rousseau declares that he had never hitherto had the least reason to suspect Theresa's fidelity. _Corr._, ii. 209 [140] _Conf._, vii. 123.