this important conception when we come to _Emilius_, where it was
launched in a panoply of resounding phrases upon a Europe which was
grown too strong for Christian dogma, and was not yet grown strong
enough to rest in a provisional ordering of the results of its own
positive knowledge. Walking on the terrace at Les Charmettes, you are at
the very birth-place of that particular Être Suprême to whom Robespierre
offered the incense of an official festival.

Sometimes the reading of a Jansenist book would make him unhappy by the
prominence into which it brought the displeasing idea of hell, and he
used now and then to pass a miserable day in wondering whether this
cruel destiny should be his. Madame de Warens, whose softness of heart
inspired her with a theology that ought to have satisfied a seraphic
doctor, had abolished hell, but she could not dispense with purgatory
because she did not know what to do with the souls of the wicked, being
unable either to damn them, or to instal them among the good until they
had been purified into goodness. In truth it must be confessed, says
Rousseau, that alike in this world and the other the wicked are
extremely embarrassing.[82] His own search after knowledge of his fate
is well known. One day, amusing himself in a characteristic manner by
throwing stones at trees, he began to be tormented by fear of the
eternal pit. He resolved to test his doom by throwing a stone at a
particular tree; if he hit, then salvation; if he missed, then
perdition. With a trembling hand and beating heart he threw; as he had
chosen a large tree and was careful not to place himself too far away,
all was well.[83] As a rule, however, in spite of the ugly phantoms of
theology, he passed his days in a state of calm. Even when illness
brought it into his head that he should soon know the future lot by more
assured experiment, he still preserved a tranquillity which he justly
qualifies as sensual.