8 INTRODUCTION. injunction, however, that it shall not appear till he is numbered with his ancestors. Rich as such a piece of autobiography may be, both in style and incident, it will exhibit to those who shall chance to behold it, a veiled and not a naked portraiture of the noble writer's mind and actions. It is neither to be expected, nor desired, that a memoir written under his peculiar circumstances, and at so critical a period of his life, should display an exact representation of the master passion that rules the author's heart. Rousseau, indeed, left behind him a reflected image of his own character, sketched in all the minute accuracy of moral deformity; but who is there that would wish to see another instance of Confessions, in which there are no traces of humility, conscience, and respect for the common sense of mankind? The philosopher of Geneva, if such a splenetic spirit deserved the name of philosopher, was frank enough to own that he chose rather to be remarkable for his paradoxes than his prejudices; the plain sense of which amounted to this, that he was ready to sacrifice every thing to the love of singularity. Thus in declaiming against prejudice, he made it appear that he was the slave of the very worst of all prejudices-a selfish, ungovernable pride of intellect. Rousseau, in fact, made an idol of his own genius, and then quarrelled with his contemporaries for not falling down and worshipping the image which he had set up, as the very model of mental excellence. Impatient of restraint, he denounced war upon all received principles, and every established institution, as derogatory to the liberty and independence of man, while at the same time he assumed the right of dictating, with more than oriental despotism, his opinions to others, without considering himself amenable to any laws of criticism or morals. This extraordinary character had, it must be admitted, a brilliant imagination; but as it was suffered to run wild for want of self-controul and proper direction, it produced more weeds than flowers; and, what is worse, the mind of Rousseau thereby became so morbid that he at length grew fonder of poison than of nutriment, and the deadly nightshade was more acceptable to his taste than the fruits of Paradise. The false views of human nature to which he had habituated himself, made him take a delight in the horrible conceptions of his fancy, till at last he believed that the world was peopled with nothing but vice and misery. What he felt in the dark chaos of his own perturbed brain, he supposed to be the actual condition of society, in which, according to his notion, it was his misfortune to be the object of general hatred on account of his superior virtue and talent. Yet the wayward caprices and dangerous extravagancies of this strange man have met with admirers, and even with apologists, who have justified him in his utmost aberrations, on the ground that as a sublime genius he was not to be tied down by vulgar rules to the ordinary duties of life. Thus genius is not only mental errors, but for a sufficient atonement for vicious practices; and the man who possesses this high gift in a supreme degree, may boldly set the laws of social order at defiance, and then presume to rush where angels fear to tread. But the laws of truth are immutable and universal; they allow no exemption in favour of pre-eminent ability; and therefore he who violates them, must be responsible not only to the Judge of all thoughts and deeds, but even to the generation in which he is cast, if his opinions and works shall produce an improper influence upon the state of the community. In such a case every individual is interested as a member of the commonwealth, the happiness of which it is his duty to promote by every means in his power; and by none more than in the endeavour to check the current of baneful principles, especially when those principles are sent forth clothed with the attractive ornaments of literary elegance, and recommended by the potent spells of rank and popularity. It is not easy to open the eyes of those who are wilfully blind, and it is still more difficult to make a proud man sensible of his folly. Still something should be done to abate an increasing evil; and though lawless wit will, in spite of remonstrance, retain its votaries, the poison may be counteracted by an antidote. It is obvious, however, that the remedy must be of a caustic nature, to be of any powerful effect. Works of reasoning may be encountered by argumentation, till their fallacies are made sufficiently clear to require no farther notice: but errors of the imagination are not to be written down by logic; for their strength lies in fiction, and having no tangible principles, they wound and are irrefutable. Didactic poetry, indeed, is of a more substantial form, and, therefore, as in the case of Pope's Essay on Man, the sophistry may be detected, because the false doctrine, as well as the consequences of it, lie open to exposure, and are capable of confutation. But this is a species of the art that takes a narrow range, and is limited to few objects compared with the boundless regions of fable and feeling, lively invention, and metaphysical sentiment. It is in these wilds that the witcheries of moral delusion prevail, which prove so dangerous to the young and inexperienced, who are apt to take upon trust whatever has the charm of external dignity and meretricious beauty. To undeceive those who are liable to be lost in this enchanted land, is, therefore, as noble and godlike an act of charity, as it was in the Hierarch, who "from Adam's eyes the film remov'd, Which that false fruit that promis'd clearer sight Such is the direct object of this biographical and critical memoir of one of the most prominent charac |