ABSTRACT
Jean-Jacques Rousseau stayed about two weeks with the Marquis de Mirabeau. Not for nothing was this disciple of Quesnay a southerner. He was outspoken to a fault, his truculent manner expressing an uncouth frankness which at times verged on brutality. Simple and honest all through, he made no effort to conceal from Jean-Jacques the fact that he did not share the latter’s opinions. He even went so far as to take him to task for his own good. Fate had been utterly unfair to Jean-Jacques. His loyalty to his friends was unimpeachable, nor did anything else in his conduct make him a deserving victim of fortune’s slings. As the reader has seen, Jean-Jacques wrote the Confessions during the most troubled years of his entire existence, between 1765 and 1770. Jean-Jacques modifying the facts of the case, putting a false interpretation on events, is Jean-Jacques to the life.
