留美博士：朱学勤剽窃Blum 中英对照系列之一

朱学勤：《道德理想国的覆灭》

第五章第三节: 173-183页

Carol Blum: Rousseau and the Republic of Virtue

布鲁姆：《卢梭与德性共和国》

第七章：Identification with Virtue  133-152页

卢梭升温——大革命的道德理想

席勒《卢梭颂》诗云：

　　当苏格拉底被智者们贬落

　　　　基督徒亦饱受折磨，教徒们咒骂卢梭

                  卢梭，他吁请教徒重返人间城廓44

　　诗人巨眼识慧，寥寥数行，即点透了卢梭、教徒、世俗人间的三者互动关系。

　　革命在步步走近。而走在革命前面的，则是一个由人而神的道德偶像，以加温社会热情，以动员社会参预。孟德斯鸠、伏尔泰、狄德罗可以作理性的导师，但不具备道德魅力。他们的哲学本身就是排斥道德，排斥价值审美，排斥来自彼岸的任何资源。他们有智者之风度，却没有圣人之气象。时代在呼唤，不是雅克，就是卢梭。鹿，已经跑到波尔卢瓦亚修道院去了。

          法国史学家雷蒙德·特鲁松描述革命前卢梭热刚刚兴起时的状况，有一段话说得极为准确：

　　 当时，有两股舆论潮流开始分流，泾渭分明：一种是敌意的排斥性的潮流，但是不能扩及到文学界。后一种潮流是鲜明的、深刻的、有扩散力的，联系着大多数人。卢梭，敏感心灵的导师，道德的教师，是被迫害的，在爱蒙农维尔死于穷困、遗弃。他不是，也不可能是——那种邪恶的人，忘恩负义的人。他的著作给他本人蒙上了一圈光环。45 （1. Blum 135页第二段第5-12行）

　　有关卢梭的神话从文学界发源，向上、下两个层面侵蚀。到１７８０年，上层社会可能已保持不了那份矜持，开始向卢梭低下它那高贵的头颅。这一年有观察者说：“所有的宗教都有它的偶像，哲学也有它的偶像。已经有半个法国转向爱蒙农维尔，去凭吊那个属于他的小岛……。王后和王子以及宫庭的所有王子王孙，上个星期都去过了。”46（2. Blum 135页第三段第4-9行）

第二年，即１７８１年，以卢梭未亡人泰勒丝名义出版的一本《安魂曲：让·雅克·卢梭的生命、传奇、对话集》风靡巴黎。订购者包括玛丽·安东奈特王后和本杰明·富兰克林美国公使等一大批宫庭显贵、外国使节和社会名流。（3. Blum 135页最后一段至136页第2行）与此同时，《巴黎报》亦推波助澜，在卢梭生前三个好友奥立弗·德·科兰茨、让·罗米利、路易丝·德赛欧编辑下，刊登了大量卢梭生前未发表的手稿。（4. Blum 136页第一段第5-8行

（此段全部逐句翻译自Blum，朱文没有注释）

         卢梭生前最讨厌巴黎的剧院。但是他死后不久，巴黎剧院却不断上演有关卢梭的戏剧，（5. Blum 136页第二段第1-2行）其中如《让·雅克的少年时代》，传播卢梭从小就是圣人的神话。最有意思的是一出两幕情节剧：《埃里珊田野里的幽灵集会》。（6. Blum 136页第二段第4-7行）第一幕是《新爱洛琦丝》里的普鲁克斯与朱丽出场，（7. Blum 136页第三段第1行）第二幕是《爱弥儿》里的爱弥儿和苏菲出场，（8. Blum 136页第三段第3行）全剧结束时则动用卢梭《乡村牧师》的颂诗和音乐，几乎凑齐了卢梭幻想作品里的主要人物和背景旋律。（9. Blum 136页第三段最后三行）在《让·雅克的少年时代》一剧幕启处，卢梭已在一把躺椅上入睡，他的父亲则在一旁阅读普鲁塔克的作品。这时，旭日临窗，冉冉升起。（10. Blum 136页最后一段第1-3行）父亲说：“你已长大成一个大孩子了……”，卢梭作苏醒状：“我马上就是１３岁了”。于是，两重唱在幕后响起：“当你出生时，我已失去她/你的妻子，我温柔的母亲……”，（11. Blum 136页最后一行至137页第4行）完全把《忏悔录》 中卢梭对儿时的诗化回忆搬上了舞台。

 （注：本大段全部逐句翻译自Blum，朱文没有一处注释）

无论剧目有什么不同，所有的舞台光环都把少年卢梭渲染成一个圣灵奇迹：他天性高尚，光照天地。为了普渡众生，拯救这个道德败坏的世界，他才降临人世。（12. Blum 137页第二段第1-5行）这些戏剧一直延续到革命年代，花样每年翻新。启蒙时代的作家没有一个获得如此殊荣。（13. Blum 137页第二段最后三行）

（此段逐句翻译自Blum，朱文没有注释）

         革命前十年，大量有关卢梭的书籍出版，而且侧重于卢梭的美德与时代的堕落这一类主题。（14. Blum 137最后一段第1-4行）法朗索瓦·查斯出版了一厚册《对卢梭和华伦夫人关系的一部公正的哲学评论》，逐点洗刷从前人们流传的有关卢梭行为的秽迹：与华伦夫人的暖昧关系、弃子不育、自恋情结，等等。认为，所有这些恰恰证明卢梭道德高尚。（15. Blum 137最后一段第4-8行）

（此段逐句翻译自Blum，朱文没有注释）

         文学渲染卢梭神话，取得了相当大的成功。卢梭的大量民粹主义观念渗入社会风气，成为时尚。（16. Blum 138第二段第3-4行）年轻人模仿爱弥儿，放弃荤食，睡在坚硬的光地板上，要做“居住在城里的野蛮人”。妇女们声称她们要听从卢梭的教诲，安心于室，相夫教子，连王后也开始亲自哺育起她的子女更多的人则模仿《新爱洛琦丝》里的穿着、打扮、说话的腔调。（17. Blum 138第三段第1-6行）路易十六的父亲路易王太子也深受爱弥儿的影响，按照卢梭的观点从小教育他的儿子，学一门手工匠人的手艺。据说，这就是路易十六那个著名的嗜好——业余锁匠的由来。47 （18. Blum 138第三段第6-10行）

        １７８６年，图卢兹科学院悬赏征文：“卢梭颂”。次年有两人获奖，其中一人就是巴雷尔，后来成为救国委员会的成员。（19. Blum 143页第二段第1-5行）巴雷尔颂扬卢梭是公共道德的先知：“他对美德的热情就是他的雄辩。只有这样的天才的人才配称为哲学家。。（20. Blum 143页第二段第6-8行）呵，让·雅克，所有的美德，所有的情感都将承认您是它们的导师，您是它们的楷模。”48（21. Blum 143页第二段第12-13行）

        １７８９年，即革命爆发的这一年，法兰西科学院预先公布的悬赏征文题目恰恰也是：“卢梭颂”。启蒙遗老格里姆，在这年９月的通信中郁郁而言：“明年法兰西学院的悬赏征文题目是卢梭颂，伏尔泰和达朗贝尔已退入阴影，人们还能说些什么呢？”49（22.全段翻译自Blum 143页注释栏注释19最后四行）

　　这一年岁末，《忏悔录》第二部出版，首次公诸于世。当时的法国已进入革命，呈烈火燎原之势。此书一出，无异烈火烹油，燃起更浓烈的道德火焰。一本匿名出版物《让·雅克或法兰西民族的信仰复兴》（《Ｊｅａｎ－ＪａｃｑｕｅｓｏｕｌｅＲｅｖｅｉｌ－Ｍａｔ

ｉｎｄｅｌａＮａｔｉｏｎｆｒａｎｑａｉｓｅ》）大声疾呼，正是通过卢梭的著作，这

个民族才学会“以美德划分等级，最正直的人就是最伟大的人。”50 （23.全段翻译自Blum 144页第二段）

         １７９１年６月，在大革命高潮中，路易·塞巴斯旦·马塞（ＬｏｕｉｓR ＳēｂａｓｔｉｅｎＭｅｒｃｉｅｒ）出版一本小册子，题目赫然为：《让·雅克·卢梭——首批被公认的革命缔造者之一》。认为，卢梭教导法国的，就是“公共道德”的原则。这场革命就是奠基于这一基石：“卢梭看出，各种社会只能依靠公共道德的手段才能存在。他为此祈祷，将他的理论与统治伟大社会的高妙艺术置于公共道德之上。”按照的理解，当时的国民公会超越于旧制度腐败观念之上，把整个民族与卢梭的“公共道德”紧紧联系在一起。“公共道德”是一种进攻性的武器，它能

使那些掌握它的人摧毁腐败，它特别反对封建制度的原则：“荣誉”。国民公会“依靠的是卢梭的公共道德，而不是虚假的荣誉”。他分析说，卢梭已为这个民族锻造了一个新词：“爱国美德”。“这一新词汇就是整个启蒙以及所有勇气的补足物。”

（24. 以上全段几百字逐句翻译自Blum 144页最后一段至145页第一段，Blum原文中这一段就加了五处注释，但朱文一处注释都没有，全部照抄，触目惊心！）

         值得注意的是，已把卢梭从其他哲学家中区别开来，说卢梭远远高于那些人，他是所有事变的关键因素：（25. Blum 145页第二段第2-4行）

 人和人的创造者并不是他幸福的对峙之物。这种悲惨的来源是伏尔泰造成的。

          使卢梭超越于他同时代作家的，就是他的雄辩有一个道德的核心。（26.以上两段见Blum 145页倒数第二段全段）

 当死亡颠覆了哲学王国的主权，他们的威望之星似乎已黯然失色，失去了对后代人的光照，从这一天起，他（——指卢梭）的王国就已经开始了。在支撑法兰西智慧宫殿的诸多栋梁中，只有一个人高悬于其他人之上。在那

根栋梁上，没有一个人没有读到过他的名字，没有一个人不把他的名字——让·雅克·卢梭——镌刻在他们的心上。诗人的荣耀似乎已经衰竭，与此同时，只有那道德作家的荣耀才能永存不灭。51 （27.全段见Blum 145页第三段全段）

         同一年，诗人、记者兼都灵大使皮埃·路易·吉昂热内，编辑出版《有关卢梭忏悔录通信集》。他坦陈出书动机，就是为了赶卢梭升温的舆论热点，乘热好打铁：“这些信件都是

写于《忏悔录》第二部刚刚出现的时候，有些朋友催促我抓住这一时机。这时候，人们对这个通信集中心人物的纪念，在某种程度上已经变得神秘化了。” （28.全段见Blum 145页最后三行至146页1-4行）

（此段也是逐句翻译自Blum，朱文没有注释）

　　 这时是什么时候？１７９１年１２月２１日，国民公会刚刚投票通过决议，给卢梭树立一座雕像，并奖励泰勒丝一份年金。（29. Blum 146页4-6行）吉昂热内看准这一时机，说卢梭的特殊人格正在成为大革命的象征，与上述马塞的观点相同，他也赞美卢梭，贬低伏尔泰。（30. Blum 146页第二段第1-3行）他详细描述了卢梭、伏尔泰之争的细节，指责伏尔泰之所以攻击卢梭，就是因为卢梭道德高尚。他建议，伏尔泰可以得到一座雕像；但题词为：“迷信的摧毁者”，而卢梭的雕像，则应以金字铭刻这样的题词——“自由的奠基人”。52 （31. Blum 146页第二段第7-13行）

（本段除了最后一句，前面都是逐句翻译自Blum，朱文没有注释）　　

        社会上盛传有关卢梭的种种神话。卢梭在法国的多处居所，被奉为圣地，那些地方的居民把卢梭像、卢梭书、卢梭警句置入神龛，供参观者膜拜。53卢梭的信徒纷纷出现。有一个叫作亚历山大·德雷依的信徒，写信给另一个信徒说：“让我们成为卢梭的朋友，一如基督徒成为耶稣的朋友”。54另有一个叫夏里埃夫人的妇女则声称她认识卢梭，并信誓旦旦地说：“我相信，我见到的卢梭确实与耶稣相似。”55 （32. Blum146页最后两行至147页前三行. 尽管朱文标注两个出处54和55来自Blum，但把页码都抄错了）

　　对于这种卢梭生前遭人唾弃，死后却受人膜拜的现象，启蒙遗老纷纷觉得不可思议。格里姆私下给友人通信，叹息说：“让·雅克看来没有崇敬者，只有崇拜者了。”56（33. Blum 146页最后一段第9-10行）他们难以理解，也难以预料，一场规模更大的风暴正在向着法国走近。

　　到了这种时候，对卢梭的崇拜已超逾他个人范围，成为一种具有普遍意义的政治化符号。它不仅遍布于下层社会，盛行于中层社会，而且弥散于上层社会。社会舆论在卢梭、伏尔泰之间的褒贬，也不仅是旧日两种哲学倾向的延续，而是预示着两种社会前途的对抗：是彻底否定历史已然状态的全盘革命，还是在接受已然经验事实的前提下分殊缓进的局部改革？如果革命已在所不免，是克制在政治革命范围，还是政治革命、社会革命、道德革命乃至革“革命”命的不断革命？

　　应该说，大革命初期阶段，大资产阶级和自由派贵族联手，确曾力挽狂澜，试图遏制卢梭式道德理想主义泛滥，将革命限制在一个有限范围。但是，他们并未成功。这一阶段历史

教训的思想史部分，与启蒙运动密切相关，我们留待第五节讨论。大革命第二阶段，是代表工商资产阶级的吉伦特派时期，这一派人后来为雅各宾派所推翻。然而，在崇拜卢梭推崇卢梭道德理想主义方面，他们与前任有异，与后任却是息息相通。正是在吉伦特派执政时期，道德理想主义从民间思潮上升为上层政治的合法统治（见第七章第一节）。如果说法国革命创造了一种独特的政治文化，57那么似应作出公正评价——吉伦特派领袖也参预了这一创造，不能完全归功或归咎于雅各宾派。雅各宾派对卢梭的崇拜，以罗伯斯庇尔为代表，后节再叙。这里可以列举吉伦特派几位著名领袖情况：

　　１、蒲佐

蒲佐为吉伦特派著名政论家，罗兰夫人的精神恋人。他回忆一生的精神历程，将他的信仰、道德追求归功于卢梭：（34. Blum 141页倒数第二段）

　　我的青年时代几乎是粗野不驯的。然而，我的心却并未受到放荡行为玷污。那种淫逸的生活使我厌恶。直到我长大成人，绝无一句下流的言词玷污过我的嘴唇。不管如何，我很早就懂得了什么是不幸。我对道德的追求坚守

不渝，道德的坚实是我唯一的庇护。我至今还记得我生命中的那一时期是多么令人激动，我从未背叛过那一时期：在那些日子里，我默默地在山间漫步，在小镇的树林里徜徉，一边欣喜地阅读卢梭或普鲁塔克的著作，或者背诵他

的有关道德和哲学最动人的论述。58（35. Blum 141页最后一段）

　　饶勒斯对蒲佐性格的形成有如下评论：

　　他的回忆录反映了那种病态的自我幻觉和自我纠葛。让·雅克那些平平常常的说教，被他吸收过来，形成了一种危险的气质：在他的道德基础上，自我确证，自我扩张，用一种带苦味的盐卤，苦苦地腌制自己59。（36. Blum 141-142页注释栏）

　　２、布里索

　　这是一位比蒲佐更活跃，也更狂热的吉伦特派领袖。１７９２年春天的对外战争，就是他主持外交事务时发动的。他这样表述自己对卢梭道德理想的崇拜：（37. Blum 142页倒数第二段）

　　卢梭应该成为所有世代的楷模。我弄不懂人们对《忏悔录》的那么多非议。我也知道

人们把他形容为一个骗子、一个诽谤家，最温和的说法，是把他说成了疯子。我有此不幸，崇拜这个疯子，并且分担他的不幸，分担那份浓厚的多愁善感，那颗道德的心灵。这丝毫不是因为他的风格，而是因为他的美德。他使

我热爱美德，如果一个恶棍能使人热爱美德，那就是一个伟大的奇迹。即使人们把卢梭说得如何不堪，附加一千个细节，更凶恶，更污秽，我也不改变我的观点。我相信我内心的判断。我与其相信卢梭有罪，不如相信这个指控他的世界，已充满了伪誓、伪证。60（38. Blum 142页最后一段）

        ３、罗兰夫人

　　她是吉伦特派富有美感的象征。几乎所有吉伦特派的重大决策，都是在她的沙龙里密议的。（39. Blum 140页最后两行至141页第1行）对于这位大革命政治性格的诗意女神，我们可以多说几句，从她的少女时代开始。罗兰夫人未嫁时，已饱读当时能够找到的卢梭所有著作。（40. Blum 139页最后三行）她说：

　　　　我感受到了一种尖锐的全身心的信仰，然而是那种只属于我自己的信仰。摆脱所有那些包围我、诱惑我、打动我的事物，我对自己说：“呵，美妙、温柔、坚不可移的美德，你将永远是我的财富、我的欢乐，……我远离神学家的种种定义，我热爱我信仰那些使我和别人共同幸福的幸福，我接受这种幸福，感受得到这种幸福。61（41. Blum 140页5-11行）

　　１７８７年７月和８月，罗兰婚后即安排了一次夫妇共赴卢梭晚年隐居地瑞士的朝圣旅行。他们拜访了勃艮弟行政长官——尚帕涅，后者曾是卢梭好友，亦是卢梭与泰勒丝结婚时的 证人。作为一个已婚少妇，罗兰夫人把她自己想象为卢梭式的人物，扩及她的丈夫。她在途中写道：“我如饥似渴地阅读朱丽（按：卢梭《新爱洛琦丝》里的女主人翁），不是第四次，也是第五次了。对我而言，那些书中人物已经和我们水乳交融地生活在一起了。他们将按照他们的脾性找到我们，正如我们找到他

们一样。”62（42. 全段逐句翻译自Blum 140页第二段1-9行，朱文注解却只包含最后的引号内容）

　　大革命爆发后，罗兰夫人实践了卢梭的妇女不宜公开参政只宜主持家政辅助丈夫参政的主张，给自己选择的政治活动方式是：不抛头露面，而是在家中主持沙龙，凝聚了一批又

一批有政治报负的男人。罗伯斯庇尔初入巴黎，就曾出没于她的沙龙。罗兰夫人给这些男人评定道德等级，将道德标准播撒于巴黎政治领袖活动范围，形成特有的道德氛围。当初罗兰夫人看中罗兰，是后者具有卢梭式的美德，正是在罗兰夫人的沙龙圈子里，罗兰后来被称为“美德罗兰”。也是在罗兰夫人的沙龙中，这个妇人第一次把罗伯斯庇尔称为“不可腐蚀者。”

（43. 全段翻译自Blum 140页最后四行至141页第二段第5行，朱文没有一处注释）

         有历史学家这样评论罗兰夫人：“对她而言，恰如她所崇尚的文学作品的模式，建立一个内在的美德理想是那样专一、迫切，以致压倒了对幸福的追求、甚至求生的本能。”63（44. Blum 141页第二段最后四行）  

米什莱分析罗兰夫人后来与雅各宾派领袖交恶，也是始于道德嫌恶：

　　罗兰夫人后来逐渐怨恨丹东和罗伯斯庇尔，在某种程度上，是他们那种粗厉冷漠的灵魂刺激了她，震惊了她。除了道德语言外，罗兰夫人几乎没有其他词汇。那颗温柔而又严峻的心灵，不仅仅是嫌恶那些被称作邪恶的人，而且是仇恨他们。整个世界被整齐地切成两半，所有的邪恶被强化为一半，所有的正义被强化为另一半。这就是在罗兰夫妇的道德圈子里看到的情景64（着重号为本书所加）。

（45. Blum 142页第一段、第二段） 

         吉伦特派和雅各宾派政见不合，血火相拼。但是双方在接受卢梭道德理想这一点上，却如出一辙。他们都倾向于建立一个“高尚灵魂（ｅｌｅｖａｔｅｄｓｏｕｌｓ）”的小圈子，以道德贵族代替血缘贵族，而且圈子越划越小，先是排斥他人，最后却被他人排斥。米什莱上述评论，不仅适用于罗兰夫人，而且适用于整个吉伦特派，甚至适用于先是被吉伦特派排斥，后来驱逐吉伦特派的雅各宾派。

朱书文献注解：

44. 爱弗瑞德·科班：《卢梭和现代国家》，伦敦１９３４年版第２章。

45. 雷蒙德·特鲁松：《卢梭和他的文学命运》，巴黎１９７１年版， Ｐ５３。

46. 普朗编：《有关让·雅克·卢梭流言的新闻和时间》，巴黎１９１２年版，Ｐ２２７。

47. 布罗姆：《卢梭和道德共和国》，Ｐ１３８。

48. 同上，Ｐ１４３。

49.同上，Ｐ１４３。

50.同上，Ｐ１４４。

51.转引自巴奈：《法国革命中的让·雅克·卢梭》，巴黎１９７７年版，第１０卷，Ｐ６０３４—６０３５。

52. 同上，Ｐ６０３８。

53. 同上，Ｐ６０３８。

54. 同47，Ｐ１４０。

55. 同47，Ｐ１４４。

56. 同47，Ｐ１４７。

57. 此说在国内由高毅首创，见高毅著：《法兰西风格——大革命政治文化》。

58. 同47 ，Ｐ１４６。

59. 饶勒斯：《法国革命社会史》，８卷本。巴黎１９２２—１９２７年版，第５卷，Ｐ１８０。

60. 同47 ，Ｐ１４２。

61. 转引自麦伊：《卢梭对罗兰夫人的影响》，日内瓦１９６４年版， Ｐ１４５—１４６。

62. 同上，Ｐ１７５。

63. 同上，Ｐ２１３。

64. 米什莱：《法国革命史》，巴黎１９５２年版，第１卷，Ｐ１２６９。

1. Blum, p. 135: As Raymond Trousson remarked on his posthumous reputation: "Two currents of opinion distinguished themselves clearly enough. One is hostile, denigrating, but it scarcely extends beyond the world of letters; the other, which is constantly manifested, deep and powerful, animates the majority. Rousseau the master of sensitive souls, the teacher of virtue, persecuted, dying poor and abandoned at Ermenonville was not—could not be—this wicked man, this ingrate: his work adorned him with a halo."4

2. Blum, p. 135: As early as 1780 the Correspondance secrete of Metra (or Mettra) commented: "All religions have their pilgrimages; philosophy has its own. Already half of France has transported itself to Ermenonville to visit the little island devoted to him... the Queen and all the Princes and Princesses of the Court went there themselves last week."5

3. Blum, p. 135-136: The following year a collection of tunes called Les Consolations des miseres de ma vie ou Recueil d'Airs, Romances et Duos par Jean-Jacques Rousseau was published and its proceeds donated to the Enfantstrouves in the name of Therese. The list of subscribers included Marie-Antoinette, the Princesse de Lamballe, the Duchesse de Choiseul, Melchior Grimm, and Benjamin Franklin. 

4. Blum, p. 136: The Journal de Paris, under the editorship of three men close to Rousseau, Olivier de Corancez, Jean Romilly, and Louis d'Ussieux, was the central organ for publishing previously unedited fragments of his work and for a "veritable press campaign" to serve his memory.6

5. Blum, p. 136: Through the decade a series of plays were written in tribute to the philosopher;

6. Blum, p. 136: Some of these dramas, like The Shades Assembled at the Elysian Fields: Melo-Drama in Two Acts, and The Childhood of Jean-Jacques, were so primitive as to approximate the medieval mystery play, with Rousseau in the role of the martyred saint.

7. Blum, p. 136: Act I of The Shades Assembled featured Saint-Preux, Julie,

8. Blum, p. 136: Act II brought Emile and Sophie onto the stage

9. Blum, p. 136: The play ended with characters from Rousseau's works and the Sage himself singing songs from the Devin du village.

10. Blum, p.136: The Childhood of Jean-Jacques presented Rousseau, as a boy, and his father. The curtain rose upon the child asleep in a chair, his father still reading to him from Plutarch as the sun rose.

11. Blum, p. 136-137"You are getting to be a big boy, now/' said the father, "I'll soon be thirteen," replied Jean-Jacques. Father and son broke into a duet, set to the music of "J'ai perdu mon serviteur," which began: "Thus I lost her while being born / Your spouse and my tender mother" (p. 11).

12. Blum, p. 137: These numerous garbled homages served up a mythic Rousseau, who combined the miracle-child quality of the folk hero, the martyrdom of the Christian saint, and his own peculiar persona of the aggressively radical moralist.

13. Blum, p. 137: These plays continued through the Revolution, new ones appearing every year. No other eighteenth century man of letters enjoyed any such postmortem celebration.

14. Blum, p. 137: Numerous works appeared during the decade which elaborated the view that Jean-Jacques Rousseau was uniquely "virtuous" because he loved himself and that the rest of civilized humanity was largely decadent.

15. Blum, p. 137: Frangois Chas published a lengthy series entitled Impartial Philosophical Reflections upon Jean-J acques Rousseau and Mme de Warens, in which he explicitly labeled Rousseau's liaison with Mme de Warens, his abandonment of his children, and his self-involvement as so many signs of his moral supremacy.

16. Blum, p. 138: Rousseau's concept of virtue gained ascendance both in the spoken and the written word

17. Blum, p. 138: Bernardin de Saint-Pierre said: "I've known libertines who got married, young people who gave up eating meat, who slept on the hard floor, women who announced publicly that they owed him their very being. Several pushed themselves to become Heloises. [His] maxims have risen to the throne itself; queens have breastfed their infants" (pp. 18-19).

18. Blum, p. 138: Louis Dauphin, Louis XVFs father, was said to have been deeply moved by Emile and to have raised his sons according to precepts he found in Rousseau, including the one urging instruction in manual crafts, which was responsible for Louis's training as a locksmith.11

19. Blum, p. 143: In 1786 the Academy of Toulouse announced a competition (one of their famous Jeux floraux) for an elogy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. in 1787 there were two, one of which went to Bertrand Barere de Vieuzac, who, as simply Barere, was to be a colleague of Robespierre on the Committee of Public Safety.

20. Blum, p. 143: Barere praised Rousseau for deriving his oratorical mastery over the public from his virtue. "His enthusiasm for virtue will be his eloquence," he said, and "it is thus that men of genius were philosophers."

21. Blum, p. 143: Oh Jean-Jacques," he apostrophized, "every virtuous and sensitive being will recognize thee for his master and model."

22. Blum, p. 143: Grimm commented in his Correspondance litteraire of September 1789: "the subject of the new Eloquence Prize proposed by the (French) Academy for next year was the elogy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. What will the shades of d'Alembert and Voltaire say?" (Paris: Buisson, 1813), 16: 253

23. Blum, p. 144: The second part of Rousseau's Confessions appeared in the fall of 1789, at the beginning of the revolutionaries' efforts ... The publication seemed to have accentuated feelings of empathy ... An anonymous publication, Jean-Jacques ou le Reveil-Matin de la Nation franqaise (BN Lb 39 6823), insisted that it was through his writings that the nation had learned: "Virtue makes rank, and the most just man is also the greatest" (p. 174).

24. Blum, p. 144-145: Louis-Sebastien Mercier, in a work entitled DeJ-J. Rousseau, considere comme Vun des premiers auteurs de la Revolution,22 published in June 1791, set forth the doctrine that what Rousseau had taught the French was the principle of "public virtue," upon which the Revolution was founded. "Rousseau saw that societies can exist only by means of public virtue; he begged for it; he posed the basis of his theory and the sublime art of ruling great societies on public virtue" (1: 159)… According to Mercier, the National Assembly had risen above the corrupt thought of the ancien regime to align the nation with Rousseau's "public virtue." …For Mercier, "public virtue" was an aggressive weapon which permitted those who possessed it to destroy the corrupt. He opposed it particularly to the feudal concept of honor.23 The Assembly "depended on the public virtue of Rousseau and not on the chimera of Honor" (1: 168), he commented, …He analyzed a new vocabulary which Rousseau had given the nation, and which permitted it to conceptualize its destiny properly. The term "patriotic virtue, that is the complement of all enlightenment and all the types of courage" (1: 191).

25. Blum, p. 145: however, Mercier separated him from the other philosophes and described him as playing the central role in events whereas the influence of the others was on the wane:

26. Blum, p. 145: "man and his creator were never the object of his pleasantries, this miserable resource was made for a Voltaire" (1: 27). "What placed J.-J. Rousseau above all the writers of his century was that his eloquence had a moral character" (1: 19).

27. Blum, p. 145: From the day when death overtook those sovereigns of the empire of literature [the philosophes], the star of their reputation has seemed to tarnish and lose its luster for posterity, whose reign, for them, has already begun. Among those pillars which in France supported the

temple of genius, one alone remains elevated to its entire height, and on that pillar there is no one who does not read, or who does not engrave

with us the name of J.-J. Rousseau. [Between Voltaire and Rousseau]... the glory of the poet seems to have declined while that of the moral  writer had only extended itself. [1: 1-2]

28. Blum, p. 145-146: Pierre-Louis Ginguene (or Guinguene), poet, journalist, and eventually ambassador to Turin, described the reason that led him to publish his Lettres sur les Confessions de J.J. Rousseau:24 "They were written when the second part of the Confessions had just appeared. Some friends urged me to seize the moment when the memory of the one who is the subject of the letters has, in some way, become sacred."

29. Blum, p. 146: The moment of which he spoke was December 21, 1791; the Assembly had voted to erect a statue of Rousseau and awarded a pension to Therese Levasseur.

30. Blum, p. 146: Ginguen£ described the particular persona of Rousseau which was beginning to be imbued with intense significance for certain revolutionaries.

Like Merrier, he pitted his hero against Voltaire.

31. Blum, p. 146: Ginguene went on to detail the quarrels that had separated Rousseau from the  philosophes, blaming, in every instance, the latter and especially Voltaire for having attacked Rousseau because of his virtue. He concluded his remarks by suggesting that while Voltaire deserved a statue to be inscribed "to the destroyer of superstition," Rousseau's should carry the words "to the founder of liberty."

32. Blum, p146-147: Rousseau's disciple Alexandre Deleyre wrote to a fellow devotee in 1778, "let us be friends in Rousseau, as the Christians are in Jesus Christ."25 Mme de Charriere remarked that in her acquaintance with him, "I believed that I saw him assimilating himself with Jesus Christ."26

33. Blum, p. 146: Grimm had noted ironically in his Correspondance litteraire that "Jean-Jacques has no admirers, he has worshipers" (8: 462).

34. Blum, p. 141: Buzot, her political ally as well as her great love, wrote of his own early years in terms which underlined his solitude, his virtue, and his attachment to Rousseau.

35. Blum, p. 141: My youth was almost wild;... never did libertinage stain my heart with its impure breath; debauchery horrified me, and up to an advanced age never had a licentious word soiled my lips. However, I early knew misfortune, and I remained more than ever attached to virtue, whose consolations were my only refuge. With what charms I still recall that period of my life which can never return, when during the day I silently wandered the mountains and the woods of the town reading with delight some work of Rousseau or Plutarch, or recalling to my memory the most precious ideas of their morality and their philosophy.15

36. Blum, p. 141-142: Jaures comments: "He had mistaken the obscure sufferings of his vanity for the revolt of his pride. This sickly obsession with the self explodes in his Memoires.Mediocre disciple of Jean-Jacques, he inherited from him a dangerous disposition toward self-exaltation in solitude, toward nourishing himself, with bitterness, on his own virtue" (5: 180).

37. Blum, p. 142: The most active and influential member of the Gironde, perhaps even more important than the Rolands and Buzot, was J.-P. Brissot de Warville. Brissot,17 described a fervent faith in Rousseau's virtue:

38. Blum, p. 142: Rousseau deserved to become the model for all the centuries I am not unaware of the various judgments made of the Confessions. I know that people depicted him as a cheat, as a slanderer. The most moderate said he was a madman. I have the misfortune to adore this madman, and I share this misfortune with a throng of sensitive and virtuous souls. It is not in the least for his style, it is for his virtue. He made me

love it, and it would be a great prodigy if a scoundrel made virtue loved. But were they to add to the horrors told about Rousseau a thousand

other details still more atrocious, more infamous, I would not change my opinion, I would believe my inner feelings; I would rather believe the whole universe, testifying against him, was populated with perjurers, than believe Jean-Jacques criminal.18

39. Blum, p. 140-141: She presided as hostess over a salon frequented by politically ambitious men rather than influencing politics through direct action in her own name.

40. Blum, p. 139: the young Manon Phlipon, before her marriage to Roland, as being deeply identified with the Julie of La Nouvelle Helo'ise.

41. Blum, p. 140: She described her sensations at mass when she was a girl: "I experienced an extreme devotion at mass; but my own kind of devotion. Removed from everything around me, distracted, moved, I said to my Divinity: 'Oh beautiful, touching, unchanging virtue, you will always be my treasure and my joy.'... I leave the definitions to the theologians: I love, I adore what makes me happy with the happiness of others, what I conceive, what I feel."

42. Blum, p. 140: The Rolands made a journey to Switzerland in July and August of 1787, visiting sites enshrined in the Rousseau canon and even former friends of the Sage like Champagneux, the mayor of Bourgoin, who had witnessed Rousseau's wedding to Therese. As a married woman, Mme Roland expanded her image of herself as a Rousseauvian character to include her husband. "I just devoured Julie," she wrote to Roland, "as if it were not the fourth or fifth t i m e . . . it seems to me that we would have lived very well with all those personages and that they would have found us as much to their taste as they are to ours" (May, p. 175).

43. Blum, p. 140-141: Intellectually Mme Roland claimed to share with Rousseau the conviction of women's innate inferiority and the necessity of their complete subservience to the male figure. She presided as hostess over a salon frequented by politically ambitious men rather than influencing politics through direct action in her own name. One of the first habitues of her afternoons was Robespierre, with whom, as Gita May points out, she had much in common both ideologically

and temperamentally (p. 191). It was she who labeled Robespierre the "Incorruptible." Her husband was called the "virtuous Roland."

44. Blum, p. 141: "For Mme Roland, as for her literary models, the need to conform to an interior ideal of virtue became so imperious that it ended up by triumphing over the aspiration toward happiness and even the instinct for self-preservation" (May, p. 213).

45. Blum, p. 142: For Mme Roland as Rousseauvian heroine, the wedding with virtue meant the division of the world into the virtuous, with whom she belonged, and the vicious, whom she set out to destroy. Michelet commented:

Mme Roland, it must be said, had arrived in her hatred of Danton and Robespierre at a degree of irritation astonishing to find in such a stout

soul. She had scarcely any vices except those of virtue; I call by that name the tendency that austere souls have not only to condemn those

whom they call bad but to hate them; and moreover to divide the world exacdy in half, in attributing all the evil to one side and all the good to the other. That is what was to be seen in the virtuous circle of M. and Mme Roland.16