Rousseau and Revolution

30 Rousseau and Revolution
understand and yet more than ever need to understand. Without a revolution
in culture, ‘freedom is but an empty word and legislation but a chimera’
(ibid., 239).
Notes
1 They are especially linked to Robespierre’s dictatorship and the time that immediately
followed. The transfer of Rousseau’s remains to the Pantheon had been
decided by decree as of 25 Germinal of year II (14 April 1794), and several weeks
later Robespierre delivered an enthusiastic eulogy. But the transfer itself did not
take place until after the fall of Robespierre, 17 Vendémiaire of year III (8 October
1794). Cf. Roussel, 1972, 11–15.
2 Letters of 6 November 1766 to Taulès and of 12 November 1766 to Damilaville,
cited by Robert Osmont (Rousseau, 1995b, 1639).
3 ‘Oh, Émile, where is the man who owes nothing to the land in which he lives?
Whatever that land may be, he owes to it the most precious thing possessed by
man, the morality of his actions and the love of virtue’ (Rousseau, 1993b, 524). Cf.
Plato, Crito, 50a–52a.
4 Cf. The Dedication to the Second Discourse: ‘Freedom is like those solid and rich
foods or those hearty wines, which are proper to nourish and fortify robust constitutions
habitued to them, but which overpower, ruin, and intoxicate the weak and
delicate who are unsuited for them’ (Rousseau, 1992a, 4).
5 And in the conclusion: ‘All these great Ministers who, judging men in general in
terms of themselves and those around them, believe they know them, cannot begin
to imagine what resilience the love of fatherland and the surge of virtue can impart
to free souls. Regardless of how often they are duped by their low opinion of
republics which offer to all of their undertakings a resistance they did not expect,
they will never abandon a prejudice based on the contempt which they feel they
themselves deserve and in terms of which they judge humankind’ (Rousseau,
1997a, 257).