ROUSSEAU - THE SEARCH

<BODY> <CENTER><FONT SIZE=5><B><FONT SIZE=6>ROUSSEAU</FONT><BR> HISTORIAN OF THE HEART</B></FONT></CENTER><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>Search for Truth</B></FONT><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>MAN OF PASSION</B></FONT><BR> In an Age of Enlightenment that glorified reason, Rousseau stands out as a man of passion and emotion. He records many occasions of intense emotion, of revelation. At the Lake of Bienne, absorbed by the beauty and peace of his surroundings, he becomes one with nature and realises that existence is merely "a succession of moments perceived through the senses". On his way to visit Diderot, at that time a friend and imprisoned at Vincennes, his mind is dazzled with a thousand illuminations, his body is seized by palpitations. The "crowds of striking ideas" that overwhelm him on these occasions find expression in a philosophy considered sufficiently radical in its time to be condemned by the authorities.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE> "Oh if I could ever have written a quarter of what I saw and felt under that tree, how clearly I should have brought to view all the contradiction of the social system, how powerfully I should have laid bare all the abuses of our institutions, how simply I should have demonstrated that man is naturally good, and that it is only through these institutions that men become evil!"<P> ("Second Letter to Malesherbes")</BLOCKQUOTE> <TABLE ALIGN=Left BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=2 CELLPADDING=1> <TR> <TD><IMG ALIGN=Left SRC="1403a.jpg" WIDTH="129" HEIGHT="250" ALT="ENCYCLOPAEDIA"></TD> </TR> </TABLE> Although it was on a visit to Diderot that Rousseau became so inspired, neither his source of inspiration nor his outlook was in sympathy with Diderot or the philosophic movement of which he was a part. Diderot was a true child of the Enlightenment and shared the faith with other philosophes that man could be perfected through reason and science. His great "Encyclopaedia" was part of this ambition. But where science sought to cure man of his sicknesses through medical technology, Rousseau sought to cure the sickness of society by attending to man's emotional well-being. <BR clear=left> <BR clear=left><BR> <HR width=100%> <A HREF="http://www.creatorix.com.au"><IMG SRC="../creatorix.gif" WIDTH="85" HEIGHT="40" BORDER="0" ALT="Creatorix" align=right></A> </BODY>