# A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind/Dedication

To the
Republic of Geneva.
Magnificent, most Honoured, and Sovereign Lords,
From a full Conviction, that a virtuous Man alone can offer to his Country Honours she need not blush to receive, I have laboured these thirty Years past to render myself worthy of doing you homage in a public Manner; and the present happy Opportunity making up, in some measure, for what my Efforts have not been able to attain, I imagined I might consult on the Occasion the ​Zeal that animates me, more than the Title that should authorize me, to approach you for this Purpose. Having had the Happiness of drawing my first Breath among you, how was it possible I should meditate on the Equality Nature has established among Men, and on the Inequality they themselves have introduced, without thinking on the profound Wisdom, with which both one and the other, happily combined together in this State, have been made to concur, in a Manner that deviates least from the Laws of Nature and yet answers best the Ends of Society, to the Maintenance of public Order and the Security of private ​Happiness? In examining what were the best Maxims good Sense might prescribe for the Constitution of a perfect Government, I was so struck to find them all complied with in yours, that, tho' I had not been born within your Walls, I should have thought myself indispensably obliged to offer this Picture of human Society to that People, which of all others, in my Opinion, enjoys the greatest Advantages of it, and has best guarded against its smallest Abuses.
Had I been the Master to chuse a Birth-place for myself, I should have chosen a Society of an Extent proportioned to that of the human ​Faculties, that is, to the Possibility of being well governed, and in which every Member was so sufficient for his Employments, as to be under no Necessity of devolving upon others the Trust reposed in him: a State, where all the Subjects could be so well known to each other, that neither the dark Machinations of Vice, nor the humble Modesty of Virtue, should be able to escape the Eyes and Judgment of the Public; and where, on Account of the sweet habit of seeing and knowing each other, every Citizen's Love of his Country should be a Love for its Inhabitants rather than for its Soil.
​I should have desired to be born in a Country, where the Sovereign and the Subjects could have but one and the same Interest, that all the Motions of the Machine might necessarily tend to the Welfare of the whole; and, as this cannot happen unless where the Sovereign and the Subjects are but one and the same Person, I must of course have desired to be born under a democratical Government, wisely tempered.
I should have chose to live and die free, that is to say, subject to the Laws in such a Manner, that neither I, nor any other Member of the same Society, should be ​able to shake off their honourable Yoke; this wholesome and pleasant Yoke, which the proudest Necks carry with so much the greater Docility, as they are not made for carrying any other.
I should therefore have desired, that no Member of the State should be able to boast of his being superior to its Laws, nor the State have any Reason to fear its being obliged to receive Laws from any other. For, let the Constitution of a Government be what it will, if there is but one Man in it exempt from the Laws, all the other Members must necessarily be at his Discretion (1); ​And where there are two Heads, one National, and the other Foreign, let them divide the sovereign Authority in the best manner it can be divided, it is impossible that both should be well obeyed and the Government properly administered.
I should not have liked to belong to a Republic lately formed, whatever good Laws it might be blessed with; for, as the Government of it might possibly be otherwise framed than present Exigences required, I could not promise myself that it would not be shaken and destroyed, almost at its Birth, either because the new Administration did ​not suit the Subjects, or the Subjects the new Administration. It is with Liberty as with those solid and succulent Aliments or generous Wines, which, tho' fit to nourish and strengthen the robust Constitutions that have been accustomed to them, can only serve to oppress, to disorder and destroy such weak and delicate Frames as had never before made use of them. Men, once accustomed to Masters, can never afterwards do without them. The more they bestir themselves to get rid of their fetters, the farther they stray from the Paths of Liberty, in as much as, by mistaking for it an unbounded Licence which is the very reverse of Liberty, they almost always ​become, in the end, the Slaves of Impostors, who, instead of lightening their Chains, make them a great deal heavier than they before ever were. The Romans themselves, tho' afterwards the Model of all free States, were not capable of governing themselves, when they first shook off the Yoke of the Tarquins. Debased by Slavery and the ignominious Tasks these Tyrants had imposed upon them, they were, in the beginning, no better than a stupid Populace, which it was requisite to indulge and govern with the greatest Wisdom, that, accustoming themselves little by little to breathe the salutary Air of Liberty, these Souls, ​enervated, or rather degraded to the Rank of Beasts, by the Rod of Oppression, might gradually acquire that Severity of Manners, and that Nobleness of Courage, which at last rendered them the most respectable People on the Face of the Earth. I should therefore have sought out for my Country some happy and peaceable Republic, whose Origin was in some measure lost in the Night of Time; which had experienced no Shocks, but such as were fit to manifest and strengthen in its Members their Patriotism and Courage; and where the Citizens, long accustomed to a prudent Independency, were not only free, but worthy of being so.
​I should have chosen for my Country one secured against the brutal Rage of Conquest by a happy Impossibility of making any, and, by a still more happy Situation, free from the Apprehensions of becoming itself the Conquest of any other State: A free City, situated among Nations, none of whom should find it their Interest to attack her Liberties, but all, on the contrary, think a Duty to themselves to defend them, when attacked by others. A Republic, in a word, which not only had nothing to tempt the Ambition of its Neighbours, but might reasonably depend upon their Assistance in case of Necessity. Such a Republic as this, a ​Republic so happily situated, could have nothing to fear but from itself; and therefore, if its Members made Arms their Study, it must be rather with a View of keeping alive that martial Ardour, and that generous Spirit, which become Liberty so well, and serve to maintain a due Relish for it, than thro' any Necessity of providing for their Defence.
I should have sought out for a Country, where the Legislative Power was common to all its Inhabitants; for who can be supposed to know better than the Members of a Society, upon what Terms it is properest for them to ​live together? But then I should not approve Plebiscita like those of Rome, where the Heads of the Commonwealth, and those most concerned in its Preservation and Welfare, were excluded from Deliberations upon which its Safety often depended; and where, by the most absurd in consequence, the Magistrates were deprived of Privileges which the meanest Citizen enjoyed.
On the contrary, I should have desired, that, in order to put a stop to interested and ill-digested Projects, and dangerous Innovations, which proved in the end the Ruin of the Athenians, no private ​Citizen had a Right to propose any Laws that came into his Head, but that this Privilege belonged solely to the Magistrates; and that they too made use of it with so much Circumspection, and the People approved the Laws proposed by their Magistrates with so much Reserve, and the Promulgation of these Laws was afterwards attended with so much Solemnity, that, before the Constitution could be any way endangered by them, every Member of the Community might have sufficient Time to be convinced, that nothing contributes so much to render Laws holy and respectable, as their great Antiquity; that the Bulk of the People soon despise ​those they see altered from Day to Day, and that Governments, by accustoming themselves to neglect ancient Customs under pretence of imaginary Improvements, often introduce Evils greater than those they intended to correct or guard against.
I should, above all things, have avoided, as one that could not but be ill governed, a Republic, where the People pretending to be able to do without Magistrates, or at least without allowing them any more than a precarious Authority, should imprudently reserve to themselves the Administration of civil Affairs, and the Execution of ​their own Laws; such must have been the rude Constitution of the first Governments at their issuing from a State of Nature, and this was another of the Vices that contributed to the Downfal of the Republic of Athens.
But I should have chosen a Society, whose private Members, content with the Privilege of confirming their Laws, and of deciding, in a Body and on the Report of their Magistrates, the most important Affairs of a public Nature, established respectable Tribunals; distinguished with Care their different Departments, elected annually the most knowing, sensible, and ​honest Men among themselves to administer Justice, and govern the State; a Society, in fine, where the Integrity of the Magistrates doing Justice, in this manner, to the Wisdom of the People, both Magistrates and People mutually honoured each other, so that, in case any dangerous Misunderstandings should at any time happen to disturb the public Peace and Harmony, these Intervals of Blindness and Error should wear visible Marks of reciprocal Moderation and Esteem, and of general Respect for the Laws; sure Omens and Pledges of a sincere and eternal Reconciliation.
​Such are, Magnificent, most Honoured, and Sovereign Lords, the Advantages I should have sought for in the Country I would choose to be the place of my Birth. But if Providence added to these Favours a charming Situation, a temperate Climate, a fruitful Soil, and the most delightful Prospect under the Canopy of Heaven, then, to be perfectly happy, I should only desire to enjoy all these Blessings in the Bosom of this happy Country, living peaceably in a sweet Society with my Fellow Citizens, and exercising towards them, and after their Example, the Duties of Humanity, Friendship, and every other ​Virtue, so as to leave behind me the Character of an honest Man and a worthy Patriot.
If, less favoured by Providence, or too late wise through my own Reflections, I had seen myself reduced to linger out, under some other Climate, a weak and languishing Career, in useless Sighs after that Peace and Repose which, through want of Thought, I had renounced in my youthful Days; I would at least have cherished in my Soul those very Sentiments I have now been avowing, tho' I could not make use of them in my own Country; and penetrated with a most tender and disinterested ​Affection for my distant Fellow Citizens, I should have addressed them from the bottom of my Heart, and, as near as possible, in the following Expressions.
My dear Fellow Citizens, or, to speak more properly, my dear Brethren, since the Ties of Blood unite us no less than a common Subjection to the same Laws, I find infinite Pleasure in not being able to think of you, without thinking at the same time of all the Blessings you enjoy, and of whose Value there is not one among you, perhaps, more sensible, than I to whom they are lost. The more I reflect on your political and civil ​Situation, the harder I find it to conceive that the Nature of Things can admit of a better. Other Governments, even when they deliberate on their Existence, are obliged to trust to imaginary Projects, or, at best, mere Possibilities. As to you, your Happiness is ready made to your Hands; you have nothing to do but enjoy it; to be perfectly happy, you need only be satisfied with being so. Your Sovereignty, acquired or recovered by you at the point of your Swords, and maintained for two Ages by dint of Valour and Wisdom, is at last fully and universally acknowledged. The most honourable Treaties have fixed your ​Limits, confirmed your Rights, and insured your Repose. Your Constitution is excellent and happy, being not only dictated by the profoundest Wisdom, but guaranteed by the most respectable Powers. Your State enjoys the greatest Tranquillity, you have nothing to fear from Wars or Conquerors; you have no Masters but the wise Laws you yourselves have made, administered by upright Magistrates of your own chusing; you are neither rich enough to be enervated by Luxury, and lose in the pursuit of empty Pleasures the taste of genuine Happiness and solid Virtue, nor yet poor enough to require from Strangers any Supplement to the ​Fruits of your own Industry. In fine, it scarce costs you any thing to maintain that precious Liberty, which great Nations cannot preserve but by submitting to the most exorbitant Taxes.
Long therefore may flourish, for the Happiness of its Citizens, and the Example of Mankind, a Republic so wisely and so happily constituted! This is the only Wish left you to make, the only thing left you to think of. On you alone it for the future depends, (not to make yourselves happy, your Ancestors have saved you that trouble) but, by using it wisely, to make your Happiness lasting. 'Tis on ​your uninterrupted Union, your Submission to the Laws, your Respect for the Ministers of them, that your Preservation depends. If there remain among you the smallest Seeds of Bitterness or Distrust, make haste to root them up as an accursed Leaven, which sooner or later would infallibly prove the Misfortune and Ruin of the Commonwealth. I conjure you all to retire to the bottom of your own Hearts, and there consult the secret Voice of your own Consciences. Is there a single Man among you, who can point out, in the whole Universe, a more upright, a more wise and knowing, a more respectable Body of Men, than that ​of your own Magistrates. Do not all its Members give you the most perfect Example of Moderation, of Simplicity of Manners, of Respect for the Laws, and of the sincerest Reconciliation? Why therefore will you not place, for your own sakes, in such wise Superiors that unreserved Confidence, which Virtue has a Right to expect from Reason? Consider that they are of your own chusing, and that they do justice to your choice; consider that the Honours due to those, whom you have constituted in Authority, necessarily reflect upon yourselves. Is there any one among you so inattentive as not to see, that, when Laws once lose their Vigour, and the ​Defenders of them their Authority, there can be neither Safety nor Liberty for any Man? What therefore is required of you but to do chearfully and without Diffidence, what your Interest, your Duty, and sound Reason should oblige you to do? Let not a blameable and dangerous Indifference for the Support of the Constitution ever make you neglect, at any time you may stand in need of it, the prudent Advice of your most knowing and zealous Fellow Citizens; but let Equity, Moderation, the most respectful Firmness continue to regulate all your Proceedings, and give the whole Universe the Example of a bold and modest ​People, equally jealous of its Glory and of its Freedom. Above all things, beware (it is the last Advice I shall give you) of sinister Interpretations, and envenomed Speeches, whose secret Motives are often more dangerous than the Actions they are levelled against. A whole House will start from its Sleep, and catch the Alarm given by a trusty and watchful Dog that never barks but at the Approach of Thieves; whereas we hate the Importunity of those noisy and troublesome Curs, who are perpetually disturbing the public Repose, and whose incessant and ill-timed Informations hinder us from listening to those they may sometimes happen to give at a proper Season.
​And you, Magnificent and most Honoured Lords; you, the worthy and respectable Magistrates of a free People, permit me to approach you in particular with my Duty and Homage. If there is among Men a Rank qualified to give a Lustre to those who fill it, it is no doubt that which both Talents and Virtue combine to bestow; that, of which you have rendered yourselves worthy, and to which your Fellow Citizens have promoted you. Their Merit adds considerably to the Splendor of your's; and considering that Men capable of governing other Men have chosen you to govern themselves, I deem you as much above other ​Magistrates, as a free People, that especially over which you have the Honour of presiding, is by its Knowledge and its Wisdom above the Populace of other States.
Permit me to cite an Example of which there should remain some better Traces, an Example my Heart will never cease to think of. I cannot call to mind, without the most agreeable Emotion, the Memory of that virtuous Citizen to whom I owe my Being, and who often entertained my Infancy with the Respect that is due to you. Methinks I still behold him, earning his Bread by the Work of his Hands, and at ​the same time feeding his Mind with the most sublime Truths. I see before him Tacitus, Plutarch, and Grotius, intermixed with the Tools proper to his Trade. I see by his side a darling Son, receiving, with too little Fruit alas! the tender Instructions of the best of Fathers. But tho' the Sallies of a thoughtless Youth made me forget for a Time such wise Lessons, I have at last the Happiness of experiencing, that, let a Pupil be ever so much inclined to Vice, it is almost impossible he should not one Day or another be the better for the Education given him by a truly affectionate Master.
​Such are, Magnificent and most Honoured Lords, the Citizens, and even the simple Natives, of the Country you govern; such are these knowing and sensible Men, of which, under the Name of Tradesmen and the People, it is usual in other Nations to entertain the meanest and falsest Ideas. My Father, it is with Pleasure I own it, was no way distinguished among his Fellow-Citizens; he was no more than what they all are; yet, such as he was, there is no Country where his Conversation would not have been coveted; where an Acquaintance with him would not have been cultivated, and cultivated to their great Advantage, by Men of the best Rank ​and Fortune. It is not my Business, and, thanks to Heaven, it is by no means necessary to speak to you of the regard you owe to Men of this Stamp, your Equals by Education as well as by Nature and Birth, your Inferiors by Choice, by that Preference they owed your Merit, which they have accordingly granted to it, and for which you are, on your Side, bound to express some Gratitude. I am overjoyed to hear, with what Affability and Condescension you temper, in all your Transactions with them, that Gravity becoming the Ministers of the Laws; how well you repay them, by your Esteem ​and your Attention to their Welfare, the Respect and Obedience they yield to you; a Conduct this full of Justice and Wisdom, and fit to obliterate more and more the Memory of those unfortunate Events, which ought to be buried in eternal Silence and Oblivion! a Conduct the more judicious, as this equitable and generous People make a Pleasure of their Duty; are naturally fond of honouring you; and the most zealous among them to maintain their own Rights and Privileges are at the same time the best disposed to respect yours.
We ought not to think it strange that the Heads of a civil Society ​should have at heart its Glory and Welfare: but it is an uncommon Happiness that those, who look upon themselves as the Magistrates, or rather as the Masters, of a more holy and more sublime Country, should express some Affection for the earthly Country that maintains them. How pleasing it is to be able to make in our favour so singular an Exception! and to place among the Number of our best Citizens those zealous Depositaries of the sacred Articles of Faith, which the Laws have authorized, those venerable Pastors of Souls, whose sweet and lively Eloquence is so much the better qualified to plant in the Hearts of Men the Maxims of the ​Gospel, as they are themselves the first to shew the Fruits of them! Every one knows with what Success the great Art of the Pulpit is cultivated at Geneva; but, too accustomed to hear Divines say one thing and see them do another, few Persons give themselves time to consider, to what a Degree the Spirit of Christianity, a Holiness of Manners, Self-severity and neighbourly Indulgence prevail throughout the Body of our Ministers. Geneva, perhaps, is the only City in the whole World that can boast of so perfect and edifying an Union between its Men of Letters and its Divines. It is, in a great measure, on their acknowledged ​Wisdom and Moderation, it is on their Zeal for the Prosperity of the Commonwealth, that I ground the Hopes of its enjoying an eternal Tranquillity; and I observe with Pleasure, Surprise and Respect, how much they detest the shocking Maxims of those sacred and barbarous Men, of whom History furnishes us with more Examples than one, and who, to maintain the pretended Rights of the Almighty, that is to say, their own Interest, were so much the less sparing of human Blood, as they flattered themselves their own should be always respected.
​Can I here forget that precious half of the Republic which constitutes the Happiness of the other half, and whose Mildness and prudent Behaviour contribute so much to secure to it the Blessings of Peace and good Manners. Amiable and virtuous Sister-Citizens, it will ever be the fate of your Sex to govern ours. Happy! as long as your chaste Power, confined to the Bounds of conjugal Union, shall confine itself to the Glory and the Happiness of your Country! It is thus the Women commanded at Sparta, and that you deserve to command at Geneva. Where is the Man barbarous enough to resist the Voice of Honour and Reason ​in the Mouth of a tender Wife? Who would not despise the empty Charms of Luxury, on beholding your simple and modest Attire, which, on account of the Lustre it derives from you, appears the most favourable to Beauty? It is your Business to perpetuate, by your amiable and innocent Empire and your insinuating Conversation, Harmony among Citizens, with a due Love and Respect for the Laws of their Country; to reunite divided Families by happy Marriages; and, above all things, to correct by the persuasive Mildness of your Lessons, and the modest Graces of your Discourse, those mistaken Notions of Things, which our young People ​take up in other Countries, whence, instead of so many useful Things within the reach of their Observation and Practice, they bring nothing home, besides a boyish Tone and ridiculous Airs acquired among dissolute Women, but the Admiration of, I don't know what, pretended Grandeur, a poor Indemnification for Slavery, and not to be compared with the genuine and innate Greatness of august Liberty. Be therefore always, what you now are, the chaste Guardians of our Manners, and the sweet Bonds of our Peace; and continue to exert on every Occasion the Privileges of Nature ​and of the Heart to the Advantage of Duty and Virtue.
No Events, I hope, will ever belye me, in thus warranting, on the Strength of your powerful Concurrence, eternal Glory to the Republic and Happiness to its Citizens. I must own however, that, with all these Advantages, our State can never pretend to that brilliant and shining Figure, with which most Eyes are dazzled, and a puerile and deplorable Taste for which is the most fatal Enemy of Prosperity and Freedom. Let dissolute young Men run into other Countries in search of easy Pleasures and long ​Repentance. Let Pretenders to good Taste admire in other Places the Grandeur of their Palaces, the Beauty of their Equipages, the Sumptuousness of their Furniture, the Pomp of their Spectacles, all their Refinements of Luxury and Effeminacy. At Geneva, nothing is to be found but Men; but such a Sight has its Merit; and those, who look out for this Kind of Merit, are well worth the Admirers of every other Kind.
Deign, I beseech you, Magnificent, most Honoured and Sovereign Lords, to accept all of you with the same Goodness the respectful Demonstrations of the Share I take in your common Prosperity. If I ​have unhappily given way to any indiscreet Transports in this lively Effusion of my Heart, I humbly entreat you to excuse it, in Consideration of the tender Love of a true Patriot, and of the ardent and lawful Zeal of one, who wishes no greater Happiness to himself than that of seeing you all happy.
I am, with the profoundest Respect, Magnificent, most Honoured and Sovereign Lords,
Your most humble, and
most obedient Servant
and Fellow-Citizen,
John James Rousseau.