Rousseau, Jean Jacques
roo-so', Jean Jacques (1712-1778), a French writer and reformer. He was born at Geneva, Switzerland, June 28, 1712. He died near Paris, July 2, 1778. His father, Isaac, was a watchmaker of French ancestry. Jean received an elementary education under the tutorship of a Protestant clergyman. At fifteen he was placed in the office of an attorney to draw up documents, but was soon dismissed for want of capacity. He was then apprenticed to an engraver, from whom he ran away to escape harsh treatment. The remainder of his life may be described as a sort of vagabondage. He lived in a great many homes, none of them his own, and made many friends, all of whom he lost, not infrequently through faults of his own. In an autobiography, published under the name of Confessions, he tells of the various scandals of his life with peculiar frankness. While a lackey in the house of a certain countess he stole a ribbon and charged its loss to a maid. In consequence both were dismissed. Various scandalous connections are detailed in the Confessions, the particulars of which are of no profit to anyone. He lived in Lyons for a time, maintaining himself as a tutor. He picked up a living in Paris in various obscure ways, such as copying music. Here he became acquainted with the chief literary men of the time, and was even admitted to certain learned societies. At one time he obtained an appointment as secretary to the French ambassador at Venice, a position which he retained but a short time.
Rousseau wrote an inconceivable number of miscellaneous essays, letters, and treatises. His influence was felt chiefly in a work known as the Social Contract, which appeared in 1762. It was a discussion of the theory of government. He held that all men are born equal; that ownership of property is a crime; that the soil belongs to no one; that monarchy is tyranny, and religion superstition. This work was denounced by all the authorities, but was none the less read widely, and had, it is said, an immense influence in bringing on the French Revolution. Among others, Robespierre was imbued thoroughly with the doctrines of Rousseau. The social Contract is now little read.
Another treatise that had a profound influence was the celebrated work on education, Emile. In this volume he described in detail the life of Emile from infancy to mature manhood. Although we may say of Rousseau that he himself was no man at all, and that he set a wretched example, it must be acknowledged that his book had influence on French society. It was condemned by the clergy for its irreligious views. Rousseau was obliged to flee from France to save his life. At one time in his wanderings he visited England, where he was entertained by the historian Hume. The more Emile was attacked by the authorities, the more it was purchased and read. One or two passages will give some idea of the work. Although Rousseau himself sent five of his children to the Foundling Hospital of Paris in succession, he inveighed against the custom of intrusting children to hired nurses:
Let mothers vouchsafe to nourish their children and our manners will reform themselves. . . The attractions of home life present the best antidote to bad morals. The bustling life of little children, considered so tiresome, becomes pleasant; it makes the father and the mother more necessary to one another, more dear to one another; it draws closer between them the conjugal tie. . . . When women are once more true mothers, men will become true fathers and husbands.
Such doctrines had a tremendous influence for a time. It became fashionable for great ladies to make a show of nursing their children. The affectation even went so far as to bring infants to the table with the dessert that the mothers might nurse them in public. Notwithstanding his own faith lessness in this respect, Rousseau also attacks fathers for neglect of their children:
He who cannot fulfil the duties of a father has no right to be a father. Not poverty, nor severe labor, nor human respect can release him from the duty of supporting his children and of educating them himself.
In another passage he speaks of the necessity of allowing children to grow up without too much restraint. Said he:
Emile shall have no head-protectors, nor carriages, nor go-carts, nor leading strings. From the time when he begins to be able to put one foot before the other, he shall not be supported. . . . Let him be taken every day far out into the fields. There let him run about, play, fall down a hundred times a day; the oftener the better, as he will the sooner learn to get up again by himself. The boon of freedom is worth many scars. My pupil will have many bruises, but to make amends for that, he will be always lighthearted.
In short, he follows Emile through life discussing nursing, clothing, exercise, discipline, and instruction. With certain exceptions, his educational ideas have received universal assent. Rousseau's ideas were, however, far ahead of his day. Among the more distinguished of his immediate disciples were Pestalozzi and Froebel. It may interest boys to know that Rousseau advised that Emile "should be encouraged to play Robinson Crusoe; to imagine himself clad in skins, wearing a great cap and sword, and all the array of that grotesque figure, down to the umbrella." He declared Robinson Crusoe to be the best book for boys ever written.
Rousseau died presumably from an attack of apoplexy, although suicide was suspected. For many years he had been partly insane, imagining that he was the victim of persecution. It is believed by many that he was under hallucinations of this sort when he wrote his Confessions.
QUOTATIONS FROM ROUSSEAU.
He that cannot command felicity may at least deserve it.
Take from the learned the pleasure of being heard and their love of knowledge would vanish.
I am . . . an active and intelligent being, and . . . I dare claim the honor of thinking.
O conscience, divine instinct, immortal and celestial voice, the unfailing guide of an ignorant and finite but free and intelligent being.
There is no sacred and inviolable charter binding a people to the forms of an established constitution. The right to change these is the first guarantee of all rights.
Your very governments are the cause of the evils which they pretend to remedy. Ye scepters of iron ! ye absurd laws ! ye we reproach for our inability to fulfil our duties on earth !
The deputies of the people are not, nor can they be, its representatives; they are simply its commissioners, and can establish no final compact. Every law not ratified by the people themselves is null and is no law.
SAID OF ROUSSEAU.
The great professor and founder of the Philosophy of Vanity.--Edmund Burke.
That bearish Rousseau.--Taine.
His grand defect was in strength of will.--Chambers.