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PREFATORY NOTE

The " Discours sur Torigine de Tinégalité parmi les hommes" is the most significant of Rousseau's political writings. It is very typical of his genius and rich in ideas, views and paradoxes. It has not grown old, and its influence has far outstripped that of the more prétentions "Contrat social." No adéquate idea of Rousseau's part in the bringing about of the Révolution and of the intellectual food this great originator of ideas was servîng to men's minds can be had without a study of this Discourse. It is this reason and the fact that this work cannot be obtained except in a complète édition of Rousseau's writings, which hâve prompted us to place this text within reach of the student of Literature, History and Sociology.

We are indebted to Professor Ra)rmond Weeks of Colimibia Unîversity for his generous interest in this publication, and to Professor L. A. Loiseaux of the same Unîversity for his pertinent suggestions.

For the convenience . of the reader we hâve given titles in italics to the most important paragraphs of the Discourse.

The spelling is that of the édition of 1790. Note the omission of the grave accent, the use of instead of a in the endings of the imperf ect and of the conditional, and the omission of / in the plural of nouns and of masculine adjectives ending in ent or ant; e. g. Fondement, Fondemens.

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Life or Jean- Jacques Rousseau

Jean- Jacques Rousseau was bom in Geneva on the 28th day of June, 1712. His ancestor Didier Rousseau had emigrated from Paris to Calvin's capital in 1555 on account of his religion. His mother died at his birth and his father Isaac was left with two children, Jean- Jacques being the younger.

Jean- Jacques' eariy youth was practically' ail spent in reading promiscuously and voraciously with his father: among the books which he read at the âge of seven we fiixd *^ Vies des hommes illustres" of Plutarch, and *'rAstrée," Honoré d'Urfé's formidable novel.

Isaac a watchmaker by trade had a quarrel and a fight with an officer of the City, and he had to leave Geneva. He moved to Nyon, while he sent out his son to a certain Pastor Lambercier in Bossey to be brought up and educated, both towns being in what is now French Switzerland. Jean- Jacques had a passionate and intense nature rendered still more excitable by his immoderate reading and he easily became intractable under the least show of injustice. There was such an occurrence at Lambercier's in which he was imjustly accused of some misdeed and Jean- Jacques took it so much to heart that his father decided he must leave the pastor and begîn to work for his living. He was then twelve years old. The lawyer in whose office Jean- Jacques was put to work soon discharged hîm as being too stupid. He then became an apprentice to an engraver, Ducommim. He

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had no lîkîng for hîs master and at the âge of sixteen, retuming one Siinday evening from an excursion to the coimtry wîth other yoiing men of his âge and finding the city gâtes closed, he resolved not to return to his employer (March 14, 1728). He set out for Annecy in Savoy, where he was directed to the house of a philanthropist, Mme de Warens, whose favorite charitable work related to the conversion of protestants to catho- Ucism. This fitted Rousseau's case. Mme de Warens was charmed with her prospective convert: in spîte of his timidity and awkwardness, the boy's inward light shone through really attractive features. She sent him to Turin to be instructed in the catholic faith. After a four month stay at the San Spirito hospital he abjured protestantism and was tumed out into the world with twenty francs in his pocket, the resuit of the collection at the public ceremony of his abjuration. He soon had to work for his Uving and after trying varions occupations in Turin, he became a lackey in a family of the nobility, then secretary to a member of that family, but in the spring of 1731 he was back at Annecy. After varions adventures, he left for Switzerland, passing through Fribourg, Lausanne, Neuchâtel, living from hand to mouth by giving music lessons and in spite of his sohcîtatîons, receivîng no aid from his father. He found employment in Paris (1732), but Paris seemed to him ail black and muddy and he retumed to Savoy, to Mme de Warens then lîvîng in Chambéry. AU thèse wanderings were done on foot as well from taste as from necessity.

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Rousseau had always been fond of music, the study of which he kept up pretty well in his nomadîc life. So he began to give lessons in the capital of Savoy with no small measure of sucxess.

In 1737 he went to Montpellier to consult the faculty of medicine about his heart but as there was nothîng the matter with it, he again availed hîmself of Mme de Warens' hospitality in her new home " les Charmettes " where he remained two years (i 738-1 740). It is during his stay there that he organized his culture, putting his ideas in order and also studying Latin and rèading Voltaire with a view to improving his style and his composition.

In April, 1740 he made a short and imsuccessful attempt at private tutoring in M. de Mably's family in Lyons but soon retumed to the " Charmettes" which he left in the simimer of 1741 to go to Paris.

He became quickly acquainted there and entered the diplomatie service as secretary of the French embassy in Venice. In this new position he proved efficient but overbearing and after a quarrel with the ambassador, M. de Montaîgu, he left for Paris where he devoted himself entirely to music. In the hôtel where he lodged, he had occasion to take the part of a yoimg servant, Thérèse Levasseur, agaînst the other tenants who teased and worried her. He became her friend and later her husband although their marriage was never officîally celebrated. The five children that he had in the course of time were put by him in the foimdlings asylum as he

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c: would never hâve had, so he saîd, either enough money

5tî or patience to bring them up.

il In Paris, he was not long in forming relations with the

most représentative people of the then intensely active, :j intellectual and cultured society. His best friend turned ' i< out to be Diderot, who in 1749 was imprisoned in The li Vincennes Keep for a political offense in connection with

the publication of his *^Letter concerning the Blînd." q Rousseau decided one day to go and see him. On the i: way there, he was perusing a number of the Mercure iî de France, and his eye fell upon the question proposed h by the Academy of Dijon: "Did the reestablishment of

science and arts contribute to improve morals?'' Sud- 1! denly his thoughts began to press f orward ; the f ermen- T tation of his mind became extraordinary; he had to l sit by the roadside: a new light was dawning upon him,

in his ecstasy he wept profusely and unconsciously. No, i indeed, the revival of culture had not purified morals, b far from it. Diderot approved of the idea, when told t of it during Rousseau's visit, less for its intrinsic truth . than for the beauty of the paradox. Rousseau's disi course, a plça for nature against civilization, received , the first prize and made a tremendous sensation. From , then on, Rousseau affected to live the part of the natural 1 man in contrast with the artificiality of society: this new • rôle suited his temper and his bashfulness. From being ' too obsequious and even servile, he became a boor. He î refused to be presented to the king, who having attended

the performance of Rousseau's opéra ^4e Devin du

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Village" had expressed the wish to extend to the author and composer hîs personal congratulations accompanied in ail lîkelihood by the offer of a pension.

To enjoy fully hîs ever increasing famé, he paid a visit to his home city, Geneva, where he abjured catholicism and was again received into the bosom of the reformed church (August i, 1754): he however soon returned to Paris.

In 1755 he published his discourse on the origin of inequality; it did not receive any prize but it is lievertheless the most interesting of his political writings.

A very wealthy lady, Mme de TEpinay, offered him a home in the country, at *4'Ermitage," on the border of the forest of Montmorency, not far from Paris (Aprîl, 1756). By the end of 1757, he had quarrelled with hîs benefactress and her friends, Grimm and Saint-Lambert, and moved to Montmorency îtself to a small cottage offered to him by another admirer. There he wrote his ^Xettre à d'Alembert sur les Spectacles" in answer to an article of d'Alembert in the encyclopedia advising the government of Geneva to allow the establishment of a theater in their city. Hère Rousseau condemned the theaters more severely than Bossuet had done in the XVIIth century. The Letter met with a great success although it seemed that Rousseau was thereby denouncing d'Alembert and Diderot as being concerned in the publication of the Encyclopedia which the government had suspended. It i? then that the Duke and Duchess of Luxembourg offered him another home on

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theîr property of Montmorency (1758): theîr hospitalîty and the perfect equality that marked the intercourse between them and Rousseau made his stay there the most enjoyable and profitable since the "Charmettes". *It is there that he published *^la Nouvelle' Heloise," a novel in the form of letters whose success was prodîgious (1760), ^^le Contrat Social," a political treatise which builds society of a contract passed between the people and their government, and ^4'Einile, perhaps the most remarkable book ever written on éducation (1762).

But it tumed out that the government condemned the book for certain views regardîng religions révélation, and sent out a warrant for his arrest. The poUce wamed Rousseau that they were going to arrest him, so he decided to leave France. He travelled leisurely, but the police could be still slower. The trouble was that he did not know where to go. The ^^ Emile" had also been condemned by Geneva; besides. Voltaire, his great rival in the public favor and his personal enemy since 17SS, was then Uving in Ferney, not far from Geneva, and such a proximity would hâve been odious to Rousseau. Fortunately for him Frédéric the Great felt kindly towards him and permitted him to réside in that HohenzoUem possession, the county of Neuchâtel: Rousseau spent three years and six months in Môtiers, a small town of the county, living an outdoor life, which best suited his disposition, never happier than when in direct contact with nature. But suddenly Geneva and

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the pastors of the reformed church of Môtîers becami very indignant over some alleged slurs on Calvin o whîch they accused Rousseau (see his 'lettres écritei de la Montagne")- The populace threatened him anc stoned his house, so he left the country hurfîedly.

After a short stay in Alsace and principally in Stras burg, where the people gave him a magnificent recep tion, as he was not authorized to remain in France he accepted Hume's invitation to come over to England and live there, in Wooton, county of Derby. Unfor tunately, Rousseau's temper had become more and mon unbalanced : he saw enemies everywhere and it was not long before he began to heap abuses on the great Scottish historian, who was thoroughly disgusted by this unexpected return for his kindness. In 1767, Rousseau left Wooton; ail the way to Dover, he behaved in the most unaccountable manner. In Dover, standing on the summit of a hill, he harangued the people. For mon than two years, he wandered ail over France in a stat( almost bordering on insanity although he was then fin îshîng one of his most curions works, his "Confessions.* In 1770 he returned to Paris, Rue Plâtrière, living witl Thérèse in a single room which served as a kitchen, din ing room, parlor and bedroom. He copied music for ; Ifving, although his favor with the wealthier class wa such that he might hâve livedinluxury,had he so wished At the same time his madness was daily increasing he lived in a perpétuai nightmare of persécution : every body from the street porter to the prime minister, wa

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plottîng agaînst him. Even the latter, the Duke of Choîseul, had just bought Corsica from Genoa in order " to deprive Rousseau of the glory of giving a model constitution to that island as the Corsican patriots had asked him to do. The dialogues entitled " Rousseau juge de Jean-Jacques" (1775) are a most astonishing document of this period of Rousseau's life ; although in his last work "Rêveries d'im Promeneur solitaire" there is an indication that a sort of quiétude was at last coming over him, probably with the approach of death. As he had been iU in the summer of 1777, his friends, his doctor, Le Bègue de Presle and the Marquis de Girardin, took him to the country in the spring of 1778 and înstalled him in a little cottage belonging to the château of Ermenonville fMay 2oth). On the second of July he died of an attack of apoplexy. He was first buried în Ermenonville. Later, by decree of the Assemblée Constituante fAugust 27, 1791) his remains were exh\imed and placed in the Panthéon next to those of Voltaire (1795).

Henri François Muller.