- Courtney (1985), p. 281, letter from Juste to Samuel de Constant, 16 February 1786:
‘He’s followed courses in physics and chemistry but he never paid much attention,
he’s taken lessons in mathematics but without getting very far. All he likes is
metaphysics, together with languages.’ It is likely that Constant had private tuition
from Edinburgh University teachers, as he did not formally register for such courses.
He may possibly have been taught mathematics by the eminent Professor John
Playfair FRS (1748–1819), whom he appears to have met again in London in May
1816, something which gave him the wish to revisit Scotland—a journey he was
never to make. See Wood (1986), p. 166. - Rudler, Jeunesse, p. 165, note 2.
- Quoted in Sir Alexander Grant’s The Story of the University of Edinburgh (see
above, note 18), p. 326. - Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee, Plan and Outlines of a Course of
Lectures..., Edinburgh, 1782, pp. 21 and 24. - Ibid., p. 19
- Charrière, Œuvres, IV, p. 573, letter to Isabelle de Charrière from Lausanne dated 26
September 1794: ‘I must go to Germany to continue work on my book, which is the
only thing in life that interests me.’ - Alexander Fraser Tytler, Plan and Outlines, p. 3.
- See Pierre Deguise’s fundamental study Benjamin Constant méconnu. Le Livre ‘De
la Religion’, Geneva: Droz, 1966, pp. 42 ff.
3 ISABELLE DE CHARRIERE (1785–1787)- Constant, Œuvres, p. 474.
- Apart from isolated passages in longer works on Constant, René Le Grand Roy’s
article is virtually the only treatment of an important subject, ‘La passion du jeu chez
Benjamin Constant’, in Benjamin Constant. Actes du congrès de Lausanne (octobre
1967), Geneva: Droz (Histoire des idées et critique littéraire, 91), 1968, pp. 201–14.
Interestingly—and in a classic case of the poacher turning gamekeeper—Constant
advocated the banning of gambling and lotteries when addressing the Société de la
morale chrétienne (Society for Christian Morality) towards the end of his life
(Benjamin-Nicolas-Marie Appert, Dix ans à la cour du roi Louis-Philippe et
souvenirs du temps de l’Empire et de la Restauration, Berlin: Voss; Paris:
J.Renouard, 1848, 3 vols, vol. III, pp. 75–7). - Benjamin Constant, De l’esprit de conquête et de l’usurpation, ed. Ephraïm Harpaz,
Paris: GF Flammarion (Œuvres de Philosophie politique, GF 456), 1986, chapitre V,
p. 96. Georges Poulet touches on the subject of gambling in Benjamin Constant par
lui-même, Paris: Du Seuil (Ecrivains de toujours, 78), 1968, pp. 57–8. - Han Verhoeff, ‘Adolphe’ et Constant: une étude psychocritique, Paris: Editions
Klincksieck (Bibliothèque française et romane, série C: Etudes littéraires, 56), 1976,
p. 99. - Ma Vie, ed. C.P.Courtney, p. 10.
- Dennis Wood, ‘Constant in Edinburgh: eloquence and history’, French Studies XL
(1986), pp. 165–6, note 42.
List of abbreviations 278