is only after profound consideration that I have brought myself to this decision.  Mark, I pray you, that if this seems an extraordinary resolution, my situation is still more so.  The distracted life that I have been made to lead for several years without intermission would be terrible for a man in full health; judge what it must be for a miserable invalid worn down with weariness and misfortune, and who has now no wish save only to die in a little peace."[170]

That the request was made in all sincerity we may well believe.  The difference between being in prison and being out of it was really not considerable to a man who had the previous winter been confined to his chamber for eight months without a break.[171] In other respects the world was as cheerless as any prison could be.  He was an exile from the only places he knew, and to him a land unknown was terrible.  He had thought of Vienna, and the Prince of Wuertemburg had sought the requisite permission for him, but the priests were too strong in the court of the house of Austria.[172] Madame d’Houdetot offered him a resting-place in Normandy, and Saint Lambert in Lorraine.[173] He thought of Potsdam.  Rey, the printer, pressed him to go to Holland.  He wondered if he should have strength to cross the Alps and make his way to Corsica.  Eventually he made up his mind to go to Berlin, and he went as far as Strasburg on his road thither.[174] Here he began to fear the rude climate of the northern capital; he changed his plans, and resolved to accept the warm invitations that he had received to cross over to England.  His friends used their interest to procure a passport for him,[175] and the Prince of Conti offered him an apartment in the privileged quarter of the Temple, on his way through Paris.  His own purpose seems to have been irresolute to the last, but his friends acted with such energy and bustle on his behalf that the English scheme was adopted, and he found himself in Paris (Dec. 17, 1765), on his way to London, almost before he had deliberately realised what he was doing.  It was a step that led him into many fatal vexations, as we shall presently see.  Meanwhile we may pause to examine the two considerable books which had involved his life in all this confusion and perplexity.

FOOTNOTES: 

[94] June, 1762-December, 1765.

[95] Conf., xi. 175.  It is generally printed in the volume of his works entitled Melanges.

[96] Corr., iii. 416.

[97] Conf., xi. 172.

[98] For a remarkable anticipation of the ruin of France, see Conf., xi. 136.

[99] M. Roguin.  June 14, 1762.

[100] Corr., ii. 347.

[101] Streckeisen, i. 35.

[102] His friend Moultou wrote him the news, Streckeisen, i. 43.  Geneva was the only place at which the Social Contract was burnt.  Here there were peculiar reasons, as we shall see.