Music was certainly the main priority to Rousseau. “I loved it from infancy, and it was the only inclination I have constantly adhered to,” (198). At first his main motivation for learning the subject was so he could practice and spend more time with Madam de Warrens, but eventually he soon did not need this motivation and he began to put many hours into the subject alone, trying to maximize his understanding. He began to resent his work because it impeded his studies, which is rarely heard of in the modern era. Today, most people learn to obtain a job in order to make money, but Jean-Jacques Rousseau was the complete opposite. He learned to keep himself preoccupied, improve himself as a person, and because it made him happy. Over time his desire to steal and undergo other bad habits faded. He also began to associate with other men of high intelligence, and attempted to learn from all of them. Rousseau was truly ambitious when it came to knowledge. One example was when he almost made himself blind performing a chemistry experiment he had just learned from a local physicist. No one can doubt his love of knowledge. …show more content…
He played one game against a gentleman he was not particularly fond of and became completely obsessed and wished to master the game. “I buy a board, with the rest of the apparatus and shutting myself up in my chamber, pass whole days and nights,” (244). He spends his time doing this for two to three months. He plays and loses many times to the gentleman, but every time he tries to absorb his opponent’s moves. This passage exemplifies the type of man Rousseau is. One of his most admirable characteristic is the fact that he treats every experience as a chance to learn and better