"See nations, slowly wise and meanly just,
To buried merit raise the tardy bust."

November, 1896.
S. W. ORSON.





THE CONFESSIONS

OF

J. J. ROUSSEAU


BOOK I.

I have entered upon a performance which is without example, whose
accomplishment will have no imitator. I mean to present my
fellow-mortals with a man in all the integrity of nature; and this man
shall be myself.

I know my heart, and have studied mankind; I am not made like any one I
have been acquainted with, perhaps like no one in existence; if not
better, I at least claim originality, and whether Nature did wisely in
breaking the mould with which she formed me, can only be determined after
having read this work.