ight; achieved his first
literary reputation from a prize competition in 1749;
published "Le Devin du Village" in 1752, "La Nouvelle
Heloise" in 1761, "Le Contrat Social" in 1762, "Emile" in
1762; the latter work led to his exile from France for five
years, during which he lived in Switzerland and England; his
"Confessions" published after his death in 1782; was the
father of five illegitimate children, each of whom he sent
to a foundling asylum.

I

OF CHRIST AND SOCRATES

I will confess that the majesty of the Scriptures strikes me with
admiration, as the purity of the Gospel hath its influence on my
heart. Peruse the works of our philosophers with all their pomp of
diction; how mean, how contemptible are they compared with the
Scriptures! Is it possible that a book, at once so simple and sublime,
should be merely the work of man? Is it possible that the sacred
personage, whose history it contains, should be himself a mere man? Do
we find that He assumed the tone of an enthusiast or ambitious
sectary? What sweetness, what purity in His manner! What an affecting
gracefulness in His delivery! What sublimity in His maxims! what
profound wisdom in His discourses? What presence of mind, what
subtlety, what truth in His replies! How great the command over His
passions! Where is the man, where the philosopher, who could so live,
and so die, without weakness, and without ostentation? When Plato
described his imaginary good man loaded with all the shame of guilt,
yet meriting the highest rewards of virtue, he describes exactly the
character of Jesus Christ: the resemblance was so striking that all
the Fathers perceived it.

What prepossession, what blindness must it be to compare the son of
Sophronicus to the son of Mary! What an infinite disproportion there
is between them! Socrates dying without pain or ignominy, easily
supported his character to the last; and if his death, however easy,
had not crowned his life, it might have been doubted whether Socrates,
with all his wisdom, was anything more than a vain sophist. He
invented, it is said, the theory of morals. Others, however, had
before put them in practise; he had only to say, therefore, what they
had done, and to reduce their examples to precepts. Aristides had been
just before Socrates defined justice; Leonidas had given up his life
for his country before Socrates declared patriotism to be a duty; the
Spartans were