The Man of Few Friends.

'Rameau was personally known to all the great literary men of the age, Voltaire, Rousseau, and many others whose writings still endure, but though many mention him, his art, his musical reforms, his influence upon French music, there is not one who says a good word of Rameau the man. The kindest of them say nothing. The others, such as Piron, Diderot and Grimm, have bequeathed this unprepossessing picture. The best that can be said is that at a time when principles tended to be lax, he was scrupulously honest, as particular in meeting his own obligations as he expected others to be in meeting theirs, a good and respectable citizen, a wise, if strict father, and a man whose repute could not be impaired even by his enemies. In short, a dour but just man, scarcely fitted to be the hero of a romance, but probably a very good husband, except for that rather repellent trait, his inordinate love of money.'

By Edwin Evans in Music of All Nations, Vol. 5, ed. Sir Henry J. Wood (date unknown).