He seems to be ignorant of the usages of society, but it is easy to see that he has infinite wit.

He has a brown complexion, and eyes full of fire light up his face.

When he has been speaking and you watch him, you think him good-looking; but when you recall him to memory, it is always as a plain man.

He is said to be in bad health; it is probably that which gives him from time to time a wild look." It was amid this brilliant intimacy, humiliating and pleasant at the same time, that Rousseau published his _Discours sur les Sciences et les Arts_.

It has been disputed whether the inspiration was such as he claimed for this production, the first great work which he had ever undertaken and which was to determine the direction of his thoughts.
"I was going to see Diderot at Vincennes," he says, "and, as I walked, I was turning over the leaves of the _Mercure de France,_ when I stumbled upon this question proposed by the Academy of Dijon: Whether the advance of sciences and arts has contributed to the corruption or purification of morals.