Rousseau, Jean-Jacques / 2008-06-08 00:00:00

1782
THE CONFESSIONS OF JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
translated by W. Conyngham Mallory
BOOK I
[1712-1728]
I HAVE begun on a work which is without precedent, whose
accomplishment will have no imitator. I propose to set before my
fellow-mortals a man in all the truth of nature; and this man shall be
myself.
I have studied mankind and know my heart; 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 has acted
rightly or wrongly in destroying the mold in which she cast me, can
only be decided after I have been read.
I will present myself, whenever the last trumpet shall sound, before
the Sovereign Judge with this book in my hand, and loudly proclaim,
"Thus have I acted; these were my thoughts; such was I. With equal
freedom and veracity have I related what was laudable or wicked, I
have concealed no crimes, added no virtues; and if I have sometimes
introduced superfluous ornament, it was merely to occupy a void
occasioned by defect of memory: I may have supposed that certain,
which I only knew to be probable, but have never asserted as truth,
a conscious falsehood. Such as I was, I have declared myself;
sometimes vile and despicable, at others, virtuous, generous, and
sublime; even as Thou hast read my inmost soul: Power Eternal!
assemble round Thy throne an innumerable throng of my
fellow-mortals, let them listen to my confessions, let them blush at
my depravity, let them tremble at my sufferings; let each in his
turn expose with equal sincerity the failings, the wanderings of his
heart, and if he dare, aver, I was better than that man.
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