4 ESCAPE (1787–1788)
The chemists of old called those airy spirits or gases which
they had not yet discovered the art of collecting or fixing
spiritus silvestres, wild spirits, and they did not deign to
concern themselves with them. These gases or wild spirits
have become the most important part of modern chemistry. In
the same way fools and rulers call independent spirits that
they don’t know how to deal with ‘wayward’ when in fact
they are the most important part of the human race.
(Journaux intimes, 9 August 1804^1 )Benjamin Constant still had one monumentally splendid act of folly to
commit. It would mark the beginning of the long slow process of
emancipation from his father and the rest of the Constant family. This was
his ‘escapade d’Angleterre’ of June to September 1787. Until then, a word
from Juste had always been sufficient to bring his son to heel. Indeed, as
we have seen, the whole pattern of Benjamin’s life had been imposed on
him by others—father, Marianne, tutors or, on occasion, the ‘enragée
boutique’, that is his irate family. The resistance he had offered to their
wishes had been minor and short-lived, and his eventual acquiescence
inevitable. If, in 1787, Constant tended to view the future with a jaundiced
eye, it was precisely because his own individual future was already taken
care of by others. However, his friendship with Isabelle de Charrière
began a change in him. For she altered Constant’s view of himself and
thereby affected his behviour in a lasting way. She did so first by her sheer
intellectual distinction: her conversation, her ideas, her example as a
novelist were a challenge and an encouragement to him to fulfil his own
potential as a writer. Second, and perhaps more important, Isabelle de
Charrière allowed Constant to be free, a luxury which he had seldom
experienced in his life. When he was with her, he could do or say almost
what he liked. He could discover himself, and Isabelle created a space for
that self-exploration by her love, her tolerance, her understanding, perhaps
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