*ALCHEMY

H1 Searching the perfect mix of (PIA) People & Ideas and Attitudes

Jacques Rousseau on his Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men:

O man, of whatever country you are, and whatever your opinions may be, behold your history, such as I have thought to read it, not in >books written by your fellow-creatures, who are liars, but in nature, which never lies. All that comes from her will be true; nor will >you meet with anything false, unless I have involuntarily put in something of my own. The times of which I am going to speak are very >remote: how much are you changed from what you once were! It is, so to speak, the life >of your species which I am going to write, after >the qualities which you have received, which your education and habits may have depraved, but cannot have entirely destroyed. There is, I >feel, an age at which the individual man would wish to stop: you are about to inquire about the age at which you would have liked your >whole species to stand still. Discontented with your present state, for reasons which threaten your unfortunate descendants with still >greater discontent, you will perhaps wish it were in your power to go back; and this feeling should be a panegyric on your first >ancestors, a criticism of your contemporaries, and a terror to the unfortunates who will come after you.