Emile, or On Education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Author:Jean-Jacques Rousseau [Rousseau, Jean-Jacques]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Allan Bloom, Emile, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Jean Jacques Rousseau; Rousseau; Emile; Allan Bloom, Rousseau, pol_guide
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

EMILE

heart without experience will be able to picture the condition of his own heart. Tears of rage flowed from his eyes; indignation choked him. He implored heaven and men; he confided in everyone and was listened to by no one. He saw only vile domestics subjected to the infamous person who outraged him, or accomplices of the same crime who jeered at his resistance and urged him to imitate them. He would have been lost were it not for a decent ecclesiastic who came to the almshouse on some business and whom he found the means to consult in secret. The ecclesiastic was poor and needed everyone; but the oppressed lad had even more need of him; and the ecclesiastic did not hesitate to assist the boy's escape, at the risk of making a dangerous enemy for himself.

"Having escaped from vice only to return to indigence, the young man struggled against his destiny without success. For a moment he believed himself above it. At the first glimmer of fortune his ills and his protector were forgotten. He was soon punished for this ingratitude. All his hopes vanished. Vain was the advantage of his youth; his ideas, absorbed from novels, spoiled everything. Having neither enough talent nor enough adroitness to get ahead easily, and knowing neither how to be moderate nor how to be wicked, he aspired to so many things that he was unable to achieve anything. Fallen back into his former distress, without bread, without shelter, ready to die of hunger, he was reminded of his benefactor.

"He returns there, finds him, and is well received by him. The sight of the lad recalls to the ecclesiastic a good deed he had done; the soul always rejoices in such a memory. This man was naturally humane and compassionate. He felt the sufferings of others by his own, and well-being had not hardened his heart. Finally the lessons of wisdom and an enlightened virtue had strengthened his good nature. He greets the young man, seeks lodging for him, and gives him a recommendation. He shares with him his provisions for the necessities, hardly sufficient for two. He does more: he instructs the lad, consoles him, teaches him the difficult art of patiently bearing adversity. Prejudiced people, is it from a priest, is it in Italy, that you would have hoped for all that?

"This decent ecclesiastic was a poor Savoyard vicar whom a youthful adventure had put in disfavor with his bishop, and who had crossed the mountains to seek the resources lacking to him in his own country. He was neither unintelligent nor unlettered and, as he had an interesting face, he had found protectors who procured him a place raising the son of a prince's minister. He preferred poverty to dependence and was ignorant of how to behave with nobles. He did not stay long with this one; but in leaving him, he did not lose his esteem, and since the ecclesiastic lived wisely and made himself loved by everyone,

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