The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-03-29

IOll Ol Nlb uIum hOubbfdN puIbuUo thS
enumeration Of the odious advances Of
civilization; odious because tits his con-
viotion that every step Of progress has
brought lie wi misery. For example,
Men enjoying greater leisure employed II
In the search Of comforts, but 10 lose these
brought more distress than their possession
had brought pleasure Again: Men
learned 10 choose in lows but jealousy
sprang into being with love, and to the
gentlest Of passions was given human
blood In sacrifice Once more; Men
grew accustomed TO assemble together.
Each one began 10 observe the others,
and wished TO be observed; thus public
esteem obtained lie value; but later on zach
man resented the dlsdain he encountered,
revenge became terrible, men showed
themselves sanguinary and cruel
BY and by Rousseau reaches the stage OF
human development where he would have
wished mankind to stop. He finds this
stage at the dawn Of agriculture and Of
tribal life, but before the institution Of
individual property. Here he thinks was
attained a just medium between the indo-
lenoe Of tho primitive state and the petulant
activity Of our self-love. This state he
pro%nounces the veritable youth Of the
world, and maintains that all later prog
ress, while II may have seemed a step for
ward toward the perfection Of each indi-
wdual, was in reality a step toward the
decrepitude Of the species. But mankind
did not stop at the stage Of primitive agi-
culture and the tnbalGfe, The cultivation
Of land was followed by its division, and
consequently by the establishment Of indi-
vidual In lieu Of communal property. From
this sprang competition, rivalry. Soon
there we're the rich and the poor. This
struggle became atrocious. Then the rich
and the shrewd proposed to establish a
government and laws in the interest Of
all Then cities and states arose. Then
national wars broke odt. Then nations
chose chiefs TO defend their independence.
Then the chief became a tyrant. Mean
while inequality grew, and with it all vices.
From this exposition Rousseau drew the
conclusion that it is against the law Of
nature, however this may be defined, that
a child should command an old man, that
a fool should lead a wise man, and that a
handful Of people should be overwhelmed
with svperfiuites, while the starving multi
tude lacks the necessities Of life.
Here, then, is one Of the most famous
productions Of the eighteenth century, one
which definitely established Roussesu's
fame and which forty years later had next
10 the Social Contract, the greatest infu-
ence on the s~ensibility and the Imagination
OF men. NJ, Lemaitre directs attention to
the intellectual poverty, the dearth Of
scientific knowledge, the glazing lack Of
logic, beneath the i~nsolent exterior of this
discourse, evidently framed for the purpose
Of astonishing warehouses;, farmers-gen-
eral and philosophers. The lecturer sub
mits that without lie style, its accent, its
interior thrill, the Discourse on lnequal-
ity" might be dismissed as a poor produc-
ton. The endless objections one could
make to it seem foolish and s%uperhuous,
because they are too easy; 80 easy that
when one is not obtuse one blushes to put
them forth. NJ. Lemaitre for his part pre-
fers to consider the Discourse from an
other point OF view; to look upon it as a
sort Of poem, or rather as a vision Of an
amateur prophet, we'll composed and written
in a didactio and tense style. Nor is IL
denied that the e~Xaggeration, the intre-
pdity, the audacity Of the paradox, giveita
sort Of grandeur. The idols Of the day,
Science, Progress, Philosophy, are method
ioally bufeted. The work seen from afar,
and thanks to a little complacency, assumes
the aspect Of a Biblical narrative or a reEig-
myth
1t may be that all which Rousseau had
In mind when he advocated a return 10 an
imaginary state Of nature was the senti-
mental reaction against the civilization Of
great cities and the impulse to revert TO a
simpler life which Is intermittently felt by
the most highly cultivated and refined men
and women. Our lecturer reminds us,
however. that had Rousseau been content
eXhort his countrymen to simplicity, to
recommend a country life or life in small
towns, such an exposition would scarcely
have struck any one as very original, and
would have made no stir. II would not have
huttered the doveootes OF the Faubourg st.
German. His ideas would have seemed
very humble and commonplace had he not
exaggerated them madly. That 10 why he
gave his trumpet blast. The criticism
seems q just one that such a startling diff
ference between the thought and the
expression IL nothing but ch%arlatanry.
As a matter Of fact 'charlatan' was the
name given him at the time by the most
sensible part OF society, such, for example,
as the group Of Nine, Du Derand or that
OF the Choiseuls.
Nevertheless. although the Dion Acad-
envy did not this time crown Rousseau's
work. the Discourse produced a tremen-
dous effect upon the lower middle class and
the proletariat, as we'll as upon a large sec
ton Of the aristocracy and the plutocracy,
and passages from it we're ever in the mouths
Of the Jacobins who dominated France
during the Reign Of Terror. The truth is,
as NJ, Lemaitre does not fail to realize. that
the cult OF equality, however unscientifc
and fundamentally absurd, carries with il
a vast power Of persuasion, because it
answers less to the sentiment Of justice
than to the instinct Of envy.
Although, in his new role OF prophet, sage
and saint, he strove patiently and at last
successfully TO be, as well as TO seem, sin
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