lowed certain social notions,
of which Rousseau had the distinction of being the most powerful
propagator. As has so often been said, his contemporaries were willing
to leave social questions alone, provided only the government would
suffer the free expression of opinion in literature and science.
Rousseau went deeper. His moral conception of individual life and
character contained in itself a social conception, and he did not
shrink from boldly developing it. The rightly constituted man suffices
for himself and is free from prejudices. He has arms, and knows how to
use them; he has few wants, and knows how to satisfy them. Nurtured in
the most absolute freedom, he can think of no worse ill than
servitude. He attaches himself to the beauty which perishes not,
limiting his desires to his condition, learning to lose whatever may
be taken away from him, to place himself above events, and to detach
his heart from loved objects without a pang.[303] He pities miserable
kings, who are the bondsmen of all that seems to obey them; he pities
false sages, who are fast bound in the chains of their empty renown;
he pities the silly rich, martyrs to their own ostentation.[304] All
the sympathies of such a man therefore naturally flow away from these,
the great of the earth, to those who lead the stoic's life perforce.
"It is the common people who compose the human race; what is not the
people is hardly worth taking into account. Man is the same in all
ranks; that being so, the ranks which are most numerous deserve most
respect. Before one who reflects, all civil distinctions vanish: he
marks the same passions and the same feelings in the clown as in the
man covered with reputation; he can only distinguish their speech, and
a varnish more or less elaborately laid on. Study people of this
humble condition; you will perceive that under another sort of
language, they have as much intelligence as you, and more good sense.
Respect your species: reflect that it is essentially made up of the
collection of peoples; that if every king and every philosopher were
cut off from among them, they would scarcely be missed, and the world
would go none the worse."[305] As it is, the universal spirit of the
law in every country is invariably to favour the strong against the
weak, and him who has, against him who has not. The many are
sacrificed to the few. The specious names of justice and subordination
serve only as instruments for violence and arms for