Rousseau 2

And you, most honourable and magnificent lords, the worthy and revered

magistrates of a free people, permit me to offer you in particular my

duty and homage. If there is in the world a station capable of

conferring honour on those who fill it, it is undoubtedly that which

virtue and talents combine to bestow, that of which you have made

yourselves worthy, and to which you have been promoted by your

fellow-citizens. Their worth adds a new lustre to your own; while, as

you have been chosen, by men capable of governing others, to govern

themselves, I cannot but hold you as much superior to all other

magistrates, as a free people, and particularly that over which you have

the honour to preside, is by its wisdom and its reason superior to the

populace of other States.



Be it permitted me to cite an example of which there ought to have

existed better records, and one which will be ever near to my heart. I

cannot recall to mind, without the sweetest emotions, the memory of that

virtuous citizen, to whom I owe my being, and by whom I was often

instructed, in my infancy, in the respect which is due to you. I see him

still, living by the work of his hands, and feeding his soul on the

sublimest truths. I see the works of Tacitus, Plutarch, and Grotius

lying before him in the midst of the tools of his trade. At his side

stands his dear son, receiving, alas with too little profit, the tender

instructions of the best of fathers. But, if the follies of youth made

me for a while forget his wise lessons, I have at length the happiness

to be conscious that, whatever propensity one may have to vice, it is

not easy for an education, with which love has mingled, to be entirely

thrown away.



Such, my most honourable and magnificent lords, are the citizens, and

even the common inhabitants of the State which you govern; such are

those intelligent and sensible men, of whom, under the name of workmen

and the people, it is usual, in other nations, to have a low and false

opinion. My father, I own with pleasure, was in no way distinguished

among his fellow-citizens. He was only such as they all are; and yet,

such as he was, there is no country, in which his acquaintance would not

have been coveted, and cultivated even with advantage by men of the

highest character. It would not become me, nor is it, thank Heaven, at

all necessary for me to remind you of the regard which such men have a

right to expect of their magistrates, to whom they are equal both by

education and by the rights of nature and birth, and inferior only, by

their own will, by that preference which they owe to your merit, and,

for giving you, can claim some sort of acknowledgment on your side. It

is with a lively satisfaction I understand that the greatest candour and

condescension attend, in all your behaviour towards them, on that

gravity which becomes the ministers of the law; and that you so well

repay them, by your esteem and attention, the respect and obedience

which they owe to you. This conduct is not only just but prudent; as it

happily tends to obliterate the memory of many unhappy events, which

ought to be buried in eternal oblivion. It is also so much the more

judicious, as it tends to make this generous and equitable people find a

pleasure in their duty; to make them naturally love to do you honour,

and to cause those who are the most zealous in the maintenance of their

own rights to be at the same time the most disposed to respect yours.



It ought not to be thought surprising that the rulers of a civil society

should have the welfare and glory of their communities at heart: but it

is uncommonly fortunate for the peace of men, when those persons who

look upon themselves as the magistrates, or rather the masters of a more

holy and sublime country, show some love for the earthly country which

maintains them. I am happy in having it in my power to make so singular

an exception in our favour, and to be able to rank, among its best

citizens, those zealous depositaries of the sacred articles of faith

established by the laws, those venerable shepherds of souls whose

powerful and captivating eloquence are so much the better calculated to

bear to men's hearts the maxims of the gospel, as they are themselves

the first to put them into practice. All the world knows of the great

success with which the art of the pulpit is cultivated at Geneva; but

men are so used to hearing divines preach one thing and practise

another, that few have a chance of knowing how far the spirit of

Christianity, holiness of manners, severity towards themselves and

indulgence towards their neighbours, prevail throughout the whole body

of our ministers. It is, perhaps, given to the city of Geneva alone, to

produce the edifying example of so perfect a union between its clergy

and men of letters. It is in great measure on their wisdom, their known

moderation, and their zeal for the prosperity of the State that I build

my hopes of its perpetual tranquillity. At the same time, I notice, with

a pleasure mingled with surprise and veneration, how much they detest

the frightful maxims of those accursed and barbarous men, of whom

history furnishes us with more than one example; who, in order to

support the pretended rights of God, that is to say their own interests,

have been so much the less greedy of human blood, as they were more

hopeful their own in particular would be always respected.



I must not forget that precious half of the Republic, which makes the

happiness of the other; and whose sweetness and prudence preserve its

tranquillity and virtue. Amiable and virtuous daughters of Geneva, it

will be always the lot of your sex to govern ours. Happy are we, so long

as your chaste influence, solely exercised within the limits of conjugal

union, is exerted only for the glory of the State and the happiness of

the public. It was thus the female sex commanded at Sparta; and thus you

deserve to command at Geneva. What man can be such a barbarian as to

resist the voice of honour and reason, coming from the lips of an

affectionate wife? Who would not despise the vanities of luxury, on

beholding the simple and modest attire which, from the lustre it derives

from you, seems the most favourable to beauty? It is your task to

perpetuate, by your insinuating influence and your innocent and amiable

rule, a respect for the laws of the State, and harmony among the

citizens. It is yours to reunite divided families by happy marriages;

and, above all things, to correct, by the persuasive sweetness of your

lessons and the modest graces of your conversation, those extravagancies

which our young people pick up in other countries, whence, instead of

many useful things by which they might profit, they bring home hardly

anything, besides a puerile air and a ridiculous manner, acquired among

loose women, but an admiration for I know not what so-called grandeur,

and paltry recompenses for being slaves, which can never come near the

real greatness of liberty. Continue, therefore, always to be what you

are, the chaste guardians of our morals, and the sweet security for our

peace, exerting on every occasion the privileges of the heart and of

nature, in the interests of duty and virtue.



I flatter myself that I shall never be proved to have been mistaken, in

building on such a foundation my hopes of the general happiness of the

citizens and the glory of the Republic. It must be confessed, however,

that with all these advantages, it will not shine with that lustre, by

which the eyes of most men are dazzled; a puerile and fatal taste for

which is the most mortal enemy of happiness and liberty.



Let our dissolute youth seek elsewhere light pleasures and long

repentances. Let our pretenders to taste admire elsewhere the grandeur

of palaces, the beauty of equipages, sumptuous furniture, the pomp of

public entertainments, and all the refinements of luxury and effeminacy.

Geneva boasts nothing but men; such a sight has nevertheless a value of

its own, and those who have a taste for it are well worth the admirers

of all the rest.