It is said the provincials revenge themselves on their enemies by songs; M.d'Aubonne revenged himself on his by a comedy, which he sent to Madam de Warrens, who showed it to me.

I was pleased with it, and immediately conceived the idea of writing one, to try whether I was so silly as the author had pronounced me.

This project was not executed till I went to Chambery, where I wrote 'The Lover of Himself'.

Thus when I said in the preface to that piece, "it was written at eighteen," I cut off a few years.
Nearly about this time an event happened, not very important in itself, but whose consequence affected me, and made a noise in the world when I had forgotten it.

Once a week I was permitted to go out; it is not necessary to say what use I made of this liberty.