never till then been minted. No one man makes a people or their creed, but Rousseau more than any other man made vocal the creed of a people, and it is advisable or necessary for the reader of the Revolution to consider at the outset of his reading of what nature was Rousseau’s abundant influence upon the men who remodelled the society of Europe between 1789 and 1794.
Why did he dominate those five years, and how was it that he dominated them increasingly?
An explanation of Rousseau’s power merits a particular digression, for few who express themselves in the English tongue have cared to understand it, and in the academies provincial men have been content to deal with this great writer as though he were in some way inferior to themselves.
II
ROUSSEAU
In order to appreciate what Rousseau meant to the revolutionary movement, it is necessary to consider the effect of style upon men.
Men are influenced by the word. Spoken or written, the word is the organ of persuasion and, therefore, of moral government.
Now, degraded as that term has become in our time, there is no proper term to express the exact use of words save the term “style.”
