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Jean Jacques Rousseau

Swiss philosopher, born Geneva, 28 June, 1712. After a varied career he went to Paris in 1741 and supported himself. In 1751 he obtained a prize from the academy of Dijon for negative answer to the question “whether the re-establishment of the arts and sciences has conduced to the purity of morals.” This success prompted further literary efforts. He published a dictionary of music, the New Heloise (1759), a love story in the form of letters, which had great success, and Emilius (May 1762), a moral romance, in which he condemns other education than that of following nature. In this work occurs his Confession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar, discarding the supernatural element in Christianity. The French parliament condemned the book 9 June, 1762, and prosecuted the writer, who fled to Switzerland. Pope Clement XVIII fulminated against Emile, and Rousseau received so many insults on account of his principles that he returned to Paris and on the invitation of Hume came to England in Jan. 1766. He knew little English and soon took offence with Hume, and asked permission to return to Paris, which he obtained on condition of never publishing anything more. He however completed his Confessions, of which he had previously composed the first six books in England. Rousseau was a sincere sentimentalist, an independent and eloquent, but not deep thinker. His captious temper spoiled his own life, but his influence has been profound and far-reaching. Died near Paris, 2 July, 1778.

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