It is very true, my dear Viscount, you would not know Theodore again. He has no longer that fair and delicate complexion which children in general have who are brought up at Paris. He is a head taller, and grown strong in proportion; and this alteration in him is not only owing to the pure air of this country, but to the active life he leads. He is equally accustomed to heat and cold, to sunshine and rain, without being incommoded by either, as we use him to these things by degrees and in moderation; for I have not had the cruelty to make him hazard the loss of his life, in order to strengthen his limbs. Rousseau is for taking no precautions of this kind with children, but allows them to fall and hurt themselves, and would expose them to the severity of the coldest weather. In doing thus, he runs into the very evil which he so strongly recommends you to avoid, that of making children unhappy. He says, afterwards, ‘What can be thought of this cruel method of education, where you sacrifice the present to an uncertain future?’ – In the same book, he also says, We should guard mankind from unforeseen accidents: let Emilius run about every morning in the coldest weather without shoes or stockings, either in his chamber, up and down stairs, or in the garden, and, far from being angry about it, I would imitate him,’ &c. &c.

This imitation is not so easy. For my part, I confess, I would not imitate Theodore, if in the month of January he chose to walk in my park, without shoes or stockings. Rousseau, always desirous of ‘guarding his pupil against any sudden accidents,’ disturbs his rest, interrupts his sleep, and wakes him abruptly, to make him get up in the middle of the night.