Circumstances of the publication of the New Heloisa 55

Nature of the trade in books 57

Malesherbes and the printing of Emilius 61

Rousseau’s suspicions 62

The great struggle of the moment 64

Proscription of Emilius 67

Flight of the author 67

CHAPTER II.

PERSECUTION.

Rousseau’s journey from Switzerland 69

Absence of vindictiveness 70

Arrival at Yverdun 72

Repairs to Motiers 73

Relations with Frederick the Great 74

Life at Motiers 77

Lord Marischal 79

Voltaire 81

Rousseau’s letter to the Archbishop of Paris 83

Its dialectic 86

The ministers of Neuchatel 90

Rousseau’s singular costume 92

His throng of visitors 93

Lewis, prince of Wuertemberg 95

Gibbon 96

Boswell 98

Corsican affairs 99

The feud at Geneva 102

Rousseau renounces his citizenship 105

The Letters from the Mountain 106

Political side 107

Consequent persecution at Motiers 107

Flight to the isle of St. Peter 108

The fifth of the Reveries 109

Proscription by the government of Berne 116

Rousseau’s singular request 116

His renewed flight 117

Persuaded to seek shelter in England 118

CHAPTER III.

THE SOCIAL CONTRACT.

Rousseau’s reaction against perfectibility 119

Abandonment of the position of the Discourses 121

Doubtful idea of equality 121

The Social Contract, a repudiation of the historic method 124

Yet it has glimpses of relativity 127

Influence of Greek examples 129

And of Geneva 131

Impression upon Robespierre and Saint Just 132

Rousseau’s scheme implied a small territory 135

Why the Social Contract made fanatics 137

Verbal quality of its propositions 138

The doctrine of public safety 143

The doctrine of the sovereignty of peoples 144

Its early phases 144

Its history in the sixteenth century 146

Hooker and Grotius 148

Locke 149

Hobbes 151

Central propositions of the Social Contract—­

  1.  Origin of society in compact 154
     Different conception held by the Physiocrats 156

  2.  Sovereignty of the body thus constituted 158
     Difference from Hobbes and Locke 159
     The root of socialism 160
     Republican phraseology 161

  3.  Attributes of sovereignty 162

  4.  The law-making power 163
     A contemporary illustration 164
     Hints of confederation 166