of her contemporaries, it seems quite impossible that she
could have given pain to any one, more particularly to a man possessing
St. Pierre's extraordinary talent and profound sensibility. Both she and
D'Alembert were capable of appreciating him; but the society in which
they moved laughed at his timidity, and the tone of raillery in which
they often indulged was not understood by him. It is certain that he
withdrew from their circle with wounded and mortified feelings, and, in
spite of an explanatory letter from D'Alembert, did not return to it.
The inflictors of all this pain, in the meantime, were possibly as
unconscious of the meaning attached to their words, as were the birds of
old of the augury drawn from their flight.

St. Pierre, in his "Preambule de l'Arcadie," has pathetically and
eloquently described the deplorable state of his health and feelings,
after frequent humiliating disputes and disappointments had driven him
from society; or rather, when, like Rousseau, he was "self-banished"
from it.

"I was struck," he says, "with an extraordinary malady. Streams of fire,
like lightning, flashed before my eyes; every object appeared to me
double, or in motion: like OEdipus, I saw two suns. . . In the
finest day of summer, I could not cross the Seine in a boat without
experiencing intolerable anxiety. If, in a public garden, I merely
passed by a piece of water, I suffered from spasms and a feeling of
horror. I could not cross a garden in which many people were collected:
if they looked at me, I immediately imagined they were speaking ill of
me." It was during this state of suffering, that he devoted himself with
ardour to collecting and making use of materials for that work which was
to give glory to his name.

It was only by perseverance, and disregarding many rough and
discouraging receptions, that he succeeded in making acquaintance with
Rousseau, whom he so much resembled. St. Pierre devoted himself to his
society with enthusiasm, visiting him frequently and constantly, till
Rousseau departed for Ermenonville. It is not unworthy of remark, that
both these men, such enthusiastic admirers of Nature and the natural
in all things, should have possessed factitious rather than practical
virtue, and a wisdom wholly unfitted for the world. St. Pierre asked
Rousseau, in one of their frequent rambles, if, in delineating St.
Preux, he had not intended to represent himself. "No," replied Rousseau,
"St. Preux is not w