in him that peculiar vice which they wished to erect into ruling virtue
was by far the most conspicuous.

We have had the great professor and founder of _the philosophy of
vanity_ in England. As I had good opportunities of knowing his
proceedings almost from day to day, he left no doubt on my mind that he
entertained no principle, either to influence his heart or to guide his
understanding, but _vanity_. With this vice he was possessed to a degree
little short of madness. It is from the same deranged, eccentric vanity,
that this, the insane Socrates of the National Assembly, was impelled to
publish a mad confession of his mad faults, and to attempt a new sort of
glory from bringing hardily to light the obscure and vulgar vices which
we know may sometimes be blended with eminent talents. He has not
observed on the nature of vanity who does not know that it is
omnivorous,--that it has no choice in its food,--that it is fond to
talk even of its own faults and vices, as what will excite surprise and
draw attention, and what will pass at worst for openness and candor.

It was this abuse and perversion, which vanity makes even of hypocrisy,
which has driven Rousseau to record a life not so much as checkered or
spotted here and there with virtues, or even distinguished by a single
good action. It is such a life he chooses to offer to the attention of
mankind. It is such a life that, with a wild defiance, he flings in the
face of his Creator, whom he acknowledges only to brave. Your Assembly,
knowing how much more powerful example is found than precept, has chosen
this man (by his own account without a single virtue) for a model. To
him they erect their first statue. From him they commence their series
of honors and distinctions.

It is that new-invented virtue which your masters canonize that led