himself, and cannot support the sight of a lackey who grumbles and
serves him with a sour look. With Madam Dupin, even where I was one of
the family, and in whose house I rendered many services to the servants,
I never received theirs but for my money. In course of time it was
necessary to renounce these little liberalities, which my situation no
longer permitted me to bestow, and I felt still more severely the
inconvenience of associating with people in a situation different from
my own.

Had this manner of life been to my taste, I should have been consoled for
a heavy expense, which I dedicated to my pleasures; but to ruin myself at
the same time that I fatigued my mind, was insupportable, and I had so
felt the weight of this, that, profiting by the interval of liberty I
then had, I was determined to perpetuate it, and entirely to renounce
great companies, the composition of books, and all literary concerns, and
for the remainder of my days to confine myself to the narrow and peaceful
sphere in which I felt I was born to move.

The produce of this letter to D'Alembert, and of the New Elosia, had a
little improved the state of my finances, which had been considerably
exhausted at the Hermitage. Emilius, to which, after I had finished
Eloisa, I had given great application, was in forwardness, and the
produce of this could not be less than the sum of which I was already in
possession. I intended to place this money in such a manner as to
produce me a little annual income, which, with my copying, might be
sufficient to my wants without writing any more. I had two other works
upon the stocks. The first of these was my 'Institutions Politiques'.
I examined the state of this work, and found it required several years'
labor. I had not courage enough to continue it, and to wait until it was
finished before I carried my intentions into execution. Therefore,