issipated
habits, careless of responsibility, and of very violent temper. He
interested himself in his son far enough to teach him to read, and
supplied him with the worthless novels which he himself was fond of
reading. This unwise course doubtless had much to do in shaping the
character of the boy. Probably it was the evil effects of this early
literature that led Rousseau later in life to oppose teaching young
children to read. Quick says, "Rousseau professed a hatred of books,
which he said kept the student so long engaged upon the thoughts of
other people as to have no time to make a store of his own."

Abandoned by his father at the age of ten, he was taken into the family
of his uncle, who apprenticed him, first to a notary, and afterward to
an engraver. At the age of sixteen he ran away, and began a life of
vagabondage. While yet a young man, he became involved in intrigues,
which, according to his own account in his "Confessions," were no credit
to him. Madame de Warens, a young widow with whom he lived for some
years, sent him to school at St. Lazare, where he studied the classics
and music; but he soon lapsed again into vagabondage. He picked up a
little music, and attempted to give lessons in it, but with small
success. He also took a position as private tutor, but he had no talent
for teaching. Later in life he married Therese le Vasseur, a woman from
the common ranks of life. She bore him five children, all of whom he
committed to foundling hospitals without means of identification. He did
this because he was not willing that his own comfort or plans should be
disturbed by the presence of children. Rousseau had reason to regret
this heartless and unnatural course when, in later years, he sought in
vain to find some trace of his children. Compayre says, "If he loved to
observe children, he observed, alas, only the children of others. There
is nothing sadder than that page of the 'Confessions,' in which he
relates how he often placed himself at the window to observe the
dismission of a school, in order to listen to the conversations of
children as a furtive and unseen observer!"[122]

In 1749 Rousseau successfully competed for a prize offered by the
Academy of Dijon on the subject, "Has the restoration of the sciences
contributed to purify or to corrupt manners?" Rousseau entered this
contest quite accidentally. He saw the notice of the contest in a
newspaper, and decided at once to compete. Of this event h