Remember that the walls of towns are built of the ruins of the houses of the countryside. For every palace I see raised in the capital, my mind's eye… - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Tomé gusto por esta recreación de los ojos que en el infortunio descansa, distrae, divierte al espíritu y suspende el sentido de las cuitas. La naturaleza de los objetos ayuda mucho a esta diversión y la hace más seductora. Los suaves olores, los colores vivos, las más elegantes formas parecen disputarse a porfía el derecho a fijar nuestras atención. Para entregarse a tan dulces sensaciones, tan sólo hace falta amar el placer, y si este efecto no se produce en todos aquellos que son impresionados por ellas, es por falta de sensibilidad natural en unos, y en la mayoría porque, demasiado ocupado su espíritu en otras ideas, no se entrega sino a hurtadillas a los objetos que impresionan sus sentidos.

So here I am, all alone on this earth, with no brother, neighbour, or friend, and no company but my own. The most sociable and loving of human beings has by common consent been banished by the rest of society. In the refinement of their hatred they have continued to seek the cruellest forms of torture for my sensitive soul, and they have brutally severed all the ties which bound me to them. I would have loved my fellow men in spite of themselves. Only by ceasing to be men have they succeeded in losing my affection for them. So now they are strangers, persons unknown who mean nothing to me since that is what they wanted. But what about me, cut off from them and from everything else, what am I? This is what remains for me to find out now.

Such as I was, I have declared myself; sometimes vile and despicable, at others, virtuous, generous and sublime.