"Ashamed," says he, "at being excluded from my rights of citizenship by the profession of a cult other than that of my fathers, I resolved to resume the latter openly.

I considered that the Gospel was the same for all Christians, and that, as the fundamental difference of dogma arose from meddling with explanations of what could not be understood, it appertained in every country to the sovereigns alone to fix both the cult and the unintelligible dogma, and that, consequently, it was the duty of the citizen to accept the dogma and follow the cult prescribed by law." Strange eccentricity of the human mind! The shackles of civilization are oppressive to Rousseau, and yet he would impose the yoke of the state upon consciences.

The natural man does not reflect, and does not discuss his religion; whilst seeking to recover the obliterated ideal of nature, the philosopher halts on the road at the principles of Louis XIV.

touching religious liberties.
[Illustration: Rousseau and Madame D'Epinay----338] Madame d'Epinay had offered Rousseau a retreat in her little house, the Hermitage.

There it was that he began the tale of _La Nouvelle Heloise,_ which was finished at Marshal de Montmorency's, when the susceptible and cranky temper of the philosopher had justified the malevolent predictions of Grimm.