Benjamin Constant

remained the same.... I am linked to you by all manner of

memories, regrets, and I might add, in spite of you, by many hopes.

Farewell, you who have made eight years of my life more

beautiful; despite some painful experiences with you, I can never

imagine you posturing or feigning; farewell, you whose true worth

I appreciate better than anybody ever will, farewell, farewell.^40

They continued to correspond in spite of such a letter, and indeed were at
this time taking a common interest in the English radical William

Godwin’s political novel The Adventures of Caleb Williams, or Things as

They Are (1794).^41
On 19 February 1796 Juste de Constant was rehabilitated and received an annual
allowance of 2,400 Dutch florins.^42 He expressed gratitude to his son for his help over the
years.^43 The legal victory was as yet only partial, however. And Juste was increasingly
concerned at the rate at which his son was spending money, at Benjamin’s wasting his
time, as he saw it, with Madame de Staël and failing to find a secure post, at his
continuing to dabble in the risky game of French left-wing politics. Unmoved by his
father’s concern, Constant was now working side by side with Germaine as they would
so often in the future, Constant on a defence of the Republic under the Directory, De la
force du gouvernement actuel et de la nécessité de s’y rallier (On the Strength of the
Present Government and the Need to rally to it), and Germaine on an essay on the
influence of the passions.^44 Constant’s pamphlet was completed around 22 March 1796.
When he returned to Paris alone in mid-April, he was to find that his pamphlet was
meeting with some success and attracting the approval of the Directory, although his
motives and sincerity were also being called into question—not for the first or last time in
his political career. He even inspired a spirited and stylish rejoinder by Adrien de Lezay-
Marnésia (1769–1814) in the form of a pamphlet entitled On the Weakness of a
Government that has only just come to Power, and its Need to rally to the Majority of
People in the Country.^45
Constant found life on his own in Paris very tiring and became somewhat dispirited,
despite having plenty of friends to talk to. He wrote to his aunt Madame de Nassau on 8
May 1796:

It’s a sad thing to have tastes as narrow as mine. Loving and

thinking are the only things I am capable of. What others call

amusements, distractions, or letting oneself go don’t exist for me.

The countryside depresses me, and I wilt when I’m in the company

of other people. In order for me to be able to live life to the full, I

need a heart that loves me or an idea that completely absorbs me.^46

He did, however, have one important new friend to support him in Paris,

Julie Talma (1756–1805), wife of the celebrated actor François-Joseph
Talma. Constant and Julie Talma appear to have become acquainted the

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