During my visit to Geneva, I saw both Rousseau's birthplace, as well as the statue of him on the Ille Rousseau (a small island accessible by a short bridge from one side of the lake to the other).From the dedication of the Second Discourse, "To the Republic of Geneva":
"Could I forget that precious half of the Republic which creates the happiness of the other and whose gentleness and wisdom maintain peace and good morals? Amiable and virtuous countrywomen, the fate of your sex will always be to govern outs. It is fortunate when your chaste power, exercised solely in conjugal union, makes itself felt only for the glory of the State and the public happiness! Thus did women command at Sparta and thus do you deserve to command at Gen
eva. What barbarous man could resist the voice of honor and reason in the mouth of a tender wife? ... Therefore always be what you are, the chaste guardians of morals and the gentle bonds of peace; and continue to exploit on every occasion the rights of the heart and of nature for the benefit of duty and virtue."Gosh, if Tocqueville isn't lifting Rousseau here, then I don't know what he's doing. Also, Rousseau is so perpetually full of irony that I rarely have any idea of when he's being serious. It is interesting, however, that, in the title page of the Second Discourse, he identifies himself as a citizen of Geneva and in The Confessions he notes that he parents were both citizens of Geneva.
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