ROUSSEAU, JEAN JACQUES French philosopher, was born at Geneva on June 28, 1712. His family had established themselves in that city at the time of the religious wars, but they were of pure French origin. Rousseau's father Isaac was a watchmaker; his mother, Suzanne Bernard, was the daughter of a minister; she died in childbirth, and Rousseau, who was the second son, was brought up in a haphazard fashion. When the boy was ten years old his father got entangled in a dispute with a fellow-citizen, and being condemned to a short term of imprisonment abandoned Geneva and took refuge at Lyons. Rousseau was taken charge of by his mother's relations and was committed to the tutorship of M. Lambercier, pastor at Boissy. In 1724 he was taken into the house of his uncle Bernard, by whom he was shortly afterwards apprenticed to a notary. His master, however, found or thought him incapable and sent him back. After a short time (April 25, 1725) he was apprenticed afresh, this time to an engraver. He did not dislike the work, but was or thought himself cruelly treated, and in 1728 he ran away. Then began an extraordinary series of wanderings and adventures, for much of which there is no authority but his own Confessions. He first fell in with some proselytizers of the Roman faith at Confignon in Savoy, and by them he was sent to Madame de Warens (or Vuarrens) at Annecy, a young and pretty widow who was herself a convert. Her influence, however, was not im mediately exercised, and he was passed on to Turin, where there was an institution specially devoted to the reception of neophytes. His experiences here were unsatisfactory, but he abjured duly and was rewarded by being presented with 20 francs and sent about his business. He wandered about in Turin for some time, and at last established himself as footman to a Madame de Vercellis. Here occurred the famous incident of the theft of a ribbon, of which he accused a girl fellow-servant. Madame de Vercellis died not long afterwards, but he found another place with the Comte de Gouvon. This he soon lost; he then resolved to return to Madame de Warens at Annecy. The chronology of all these events, as narrated by himself, is somewhat obscure, but they seem to have occupied about three years.
Even then Rousseau did not settle at once in the anomalous position of domestic lover to this lady, who, nominally a con verted Protestant, was in reality a kind of deist, with a theory of noble sentiment and a practice of libertinism tempered by good nature. She thought it necessary to complete his education, and
he was sent to the seminarists of St. Lazare to be improved in classics, and also to a music master. In one of his incomprehen sible freaks he set off for Lyons, and, after abandoning his com panion in an epileptic fit, returned to Annecy to find Madame de Warens gone. Then for some months he relapsed into the life of vagabondage, varied by improbable adventures, which (accord ing to his own statement) he so often pursued. Hardly knowing anything of music, he attempted to give lessons and a concert at Lausanne; and he actually taught at Neuchatel. Then he became, or says he became, secretary to a Greek archimandrite who was travelling in Switzerland to collect subscriptions for the rebuilding of the Holy Sepulchre; then he went to Paris, and, with recom mendations from the French ambassador at Soleure, saw some thing of good society; then he returned on foot through Lyons to Savoy, hearing that Madame de Warens was at Chambery. This was in 1732, and Rousseau, who for a time had unimportant employments in the service of the Sardinian Crown, was shortly installed by Madame de Warens, whom he still called Maman, as amant en titre in her singular household, wherein she diverted herself with him, with music and with chemistry. In 1736 Madame de Warens, partly for Rousseau's health, took a country house, Les Charmettes, a short distance from Chambery. Here in sum mer, and in the town during winter, Rousseau led a delightful life, which he has delightfully described. In a desultory way he did a good deal of reading, but in 1738 his health again became bad, and he was recommended to go to Montpellier. By his own account this journey to Montpellier was in reality a voyage a Cythere in company with a certain Madame de Larnage. This being so, he could hardly complain when on returning he found that his official position in Madame de Waren's household had been taken by a person named Vintzenried. In 174o he became tutor at Lyons to the children of M. de Mably, not the well known writer of that name, but his and Condillac's elder brother.