ABSTRACT
Jean-Jacques took with him the manuscript of the Reveries d’un promeneur solitaire, an admirable monologue which, unfinished as it is, takes rank with his Confessions as the most individual and fresh of his works. Monsieur de Girardin, who had heard of Jean-Jacques’s distress through one of his ardent admirers, a young Knight of Malta named Filamainville, welcomed him kindly. He installed the philosopher in a furnished dwelling, since, on leaving Paris, Jean-Jacques had instructed Therese Levasseur, who was to join him a little later, to sell all his household goods. His daily strolls were filled with delightful observations, and the leisure of his body quickened his mind to greater activity. Gazing on the spectacle of the works of God, growing with long practice familiar with them, he finally achieved an attitude of resignation. The charm of an island scene has always worked its spell on idealistic natures.
