The former by their sheer force and plenitude of vitality may, even in a world where reflection is a first condition, still go far.

The latter succumb, and as reflection does nothing for them, and as their sensations in such a world bring them few blandishments, they are tolerably early surrounded with a self-diffusing atmosphere of misery.

Rousseau had none of this energy which makes oppression bracing.

For a time he sank.
It would be a mistake to let the story of the Confessions carry us into exaggerations.

The brutality of his master and the harshness of his life led him to nothing very criminal, but only to wrong acts which are despicable by their meanness, rather than in any sense atrocious.