plan of
musical notation was examined by a learned committee of the Academy, no
member of whom was instructed in the musical art. Rousseau, dumb,
inarticulate, and unready as usual, was amazed at the ease with which
his critics by the free use of sounding phrases demolished arguments and
objections which he perceived that they did not at all understand. His
experience on this occasion suggested to him the most just reflection,
how even without breadth of intelligence, the profound knowledge of any
one thing is preferable in forming a judgment about it, to all possible
enlightenment conferred by the cultivation of the sciences, without
study of the special matter in question. It astonished him that all
these learned men, who knew so many things, could yet be so ignorant
that a man should only pretend to be a judge in his own craft.[107]

His musical path to glory and riches thus blocked up, he surrendered
himself not to despair but to complete idleness and peace of mind. He
had a few coins left, and these prevented him from thinking of a future.
He was presented to one or two great ladies, and with the blundering
gallantry habitual to him he wrote a letter to one of the greatest of
them, declaring his passion for her. Madame Dupin was the daughter of
one, and the wife of another, of the richest men in France, and the
attentions of a man whose acquaintance Madame Beuzenval had begun by
inviting him to dine in the servants' hall, were not pleasing to
her.[108] She forgave the impertinence eventually, and her stepson, M.
Francueil, was Rousseau's patron for some years.[109] On the whole,
however, in spite of his own account of his social ineptitude, there
cannot have been anything so repulsive in his manners as this account
would lead us to think. There is no grave anachronism in introducing
here the impression which he made on two fine ladies not many years
after this. "He pays compliments, yet he is not polite, or at least he
is without the air of politeness. He seems to be ignorant of the usages
of society, but it is easily seen that he is infinitely intelligent. He
has a brown complexion, while eyes that overflow with fire give
animation to his expression. When he has spoken and you look at him, he
appears comely; but when you try to recall him, his image is always
extremely plain. They say that he has bad health, and endures agony
which from some motive of vanity he most carefully conceals. It is
this, I fancy, which