Lafreniere 1990 rousseau environmentalism

Rousseau and the European Roots of Environmentalism Author(s): Gilbert F. LaFreniere Source: Environmental History Review, Vol. 14, No. 4 (Winter, 1990), pp. 41-72 Published by: Forest History Society and American Society for Environmental History Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3984813 .

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Rousseau and the European Roots of Environmentalism

Gllbert F. LaFreniere Willamette University

The modem American tradition of environmentalism, dating from the 1960s,is generally understood to have its more immediate origins in the conservationistand preservationistmovements of the late 19th century. It is also widely perceived as indigenous, beginning its genealogy with RalphWaldo Emersonand Henry David Thoreau,or perhaps even with the agrarianrepublicanismof ThomasJefferson. Jean-JacquesRousseauand other European partisansof nature usually are not linked to this Americantradition.

However, Rousseau directly influenced Emerson,at least indirectly influenced Thoreauand JohnMuir throughWordsworth,and, especially through the popularityof LaNouvelleH1oise,Emile,and the Lettressur la Botanique,influenced the attitudesof many Americanstoward naturethrough the transatlanticcultureof the 18thand 19th centuries. The contributionof Europeanideas, in naturalscience toward the discipline of ecology (e.g., Linnaeus, Malthus,Darwin),and in social science and literaturetoward a modem philosophy and aestheticsof nature(e.g., Diderot,Rousseau, Goethe, and Wordsworth),createdmuch of the intellectual

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foundation necessary to the rise of a growing party of naturein America.' This new view of nature,an essential element in the RomanticMovement, laterbecame a part of American Transcendentalism.

Rousseau deserves particularconsiderationas an example of an early modern "pre-environmentalist" because, in addition to his contributionto the deistic natureworship which formed a powerful currentin the RomanticMovement, he is recognized as an important defender of naturefor its value to humanity. For example, George Boas points out the contributionsof Diogenes, Rousseau, Wordsworth,Emerson,and Thoreau,among others, towards viewing natureas a norm for human behavior and belief.2 In modem terms, Rousseau could be considered the equivalent of an environmentalradical,an environmentalistdemanding not simple reformbut the virtual reconstructionof society and of the economic, political,and ethical attitudes and institutionswhich bear upon our relationshipto the naturalworld. My purpose in this articleis to demonstratethat Rousseau'sthought conceming natureis important to contemporaryenvironmentalhistoriansand philosophers for two mapr reasons. Firstof all, considered normatively,Rousseau'sideas deserve serious considerationas a model of a complete, holistic outlook toward natureand humanity's relationshipto nature. In the first part of this articleI will attempt to show that, aside from all subsequent influence on later pre-environmentalthinkers, Rousseau'scomplex system of ideas is worthy of study in itself as a paradigmof what man's relationshipto natureoughtto be. In other words, I propose that what we would today call an environmental ethicis implicit in Rousseau'sthought and has potential utilitarian value as we attempt to constructa workableenvironmentalethic for the future. Rousseau'simportanceas a normative figure appears to have been neglected in America,while only since 1978has he been recognized in France,by MarcelSchneider,as a seminal preenvironmentalthinkeras well as the "spiritualfather"of the Green Movement. Some of Rousseau'squalificationsfor such recognition are as follows.

Historically,Rousseau,in the Discourssur les Scienceset les Artsor FirstDiscourseand the Discourssur l'Originede l'Inetgalite or SecondDiscoursecriticizedthe self-satisfiedidea of progress of the as a misguided faith in the beneficenteffects of the philosophes development of science, technology, commerceand industry.

Politically,in the Discourssur l'EconomiePolitiqueand Du Contract Socialor TheSocialContract,he elaboratedthe concept of the general

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will, essential to contemporaryenvironmentalpolitics. As a basis for social reconstructionin harmony with nature,elements of an autarkic,pastoral society are suggested in the Discourssur l'Economie Politique.Rousseau's religious beliefs breakwith orthodox,revealed Christianityto assert a deism in which natureworship is acceptable (or later becomes acceptable)as a response to God's creation,as in the "Professionof Faithof the SavoyardVicar"in Emile,and in Julie, or LaNouvelleHeloise. Closely related to his religious attitudesand eventually becoming detached from them in his lateryears, Rousseau's subjective,emotional response to the beauties of nature (in LesReveriesdu PromeneurSolitaire)contributedto establishinga new norm for aestheticallyevaluating nature. Finally,his attempts to understandnature scientifically,as in the transformistexplanation of human development in the SecondDiscourseor in his Lettressur la Botanique,point beyond the static conceptionof natureassociated with his deism towards the evolutionaryparadigmessential to modem ecology.3 The second reason for Rousseau'simportancetoday is the need to fully and clearlyexplore the origins or rootsof the tradition of ideas elaboratedin defense of natureprior to modem environmentalism. What Donald Worsterhas done for the history of ecological thought needs to be complementedby a history of "politicalecology," environmentalideas in the realm of the social sciences. David Pepper's TheRootsofModernEnvironmentalism (1984)has made an importantstep in this direction,but much detailed work remains to be done before a comprehensivesynthesis can be achieved. P. R. Hay's recentanalysis of the relationship between Romanticismand environmentalismis anotherimportant contributiontowards this end.4 Given my twofold purpose of considering Rousseau normativelyas an early pre-environmentalist and of assessing his influence upon Americanpre-environmental thought, my approachwill be: (1) to begin with a brief summaryof Rousseau's place in contemporaryenvironmentalliterature;(2) to explain the normative value of Rousseau'ssystem of ideas, particularlyas developed in the three Discourses;and (3) to focus on Julieou LaNouvelleHeloise,Emile,and, briefly, LesConfessions and their direct and indirectinfluence upon Americanattitudes toward nature. This approachallows my explanationof Rousseau'sideas to follow the chronologicalorder of his majorworks from the First Discoursethrough Julie,Emile and TheConfessions.

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Rousseau in ContemporaryEnvironmentalLiterature As early as 1967,in the first edition of Wilderness and theAmerican Mind,RoderickNash describedRousseau as a primitivistwhose "Julieou LaNouvelleHeloise(1761)heaped such praise on the sublimity of wilderness scenes in the Alps that it stimulated a generationof artiststo adopt the Romanticmode."5More recently,a study of "Rousseauand the Poetry of Mountaineering"states that La NouvelleHeloise"did more than any other single work to unfold the artisticvalues of mountaineeringto a wide audience."6These statementssuggest that both the pilgrimages of 19th century Englishmenand other Europeansto the Alps for the enjoymentof majesticscenery and the growing practiceof mountain climbing were promulgated,at least in part,by response to Rousseau's praise of mountain scenery in Julie. Many books dealing with environmentalismand its origins have focused on ideas which have led to destructiveenvironmentalattitudes and practices,such as the anthropocentrismof the Judaeo-Christiantraditionand the theories of propertyand values developed by JohnLocke,Adam Smith,and KarlMarx. Historicalsources of solutions to environmental problemsappear generally to have received less attention. A major exception is WilliamOphuls' Ecologyand thePoliticsof Scarcity(1977), which applies the politicalphilosophies of Thomas Hobbes and Rousseau to the problems of overpopulation,resourcescarcity,and environmentaldegradation. In a similarvein, David Pepper credits Rousseau with developing "thebasic social (as distinct from ecological)principlewhich is implicit in ecotopia-that is, that one best realizes one's individuality in and through serving the common need."7 Having "tracedthe roots of anarchistand ecocentricutopias back to Rousseau,"Pepper also suggests that Rousseau must bear responsibilityfor possible fascisticcharacteristicsof ecotopia.8 A similarcritiqueof Ophuls' applicationof Rousseau'spolitical principles to the steady-statesociety purportsto uncover an unpalatableauthoritarianismtherein.9 Americanand Britishscholarshad recognized several differentcontributionsof Rousseau'sthought to modern environmentalism,but it took a Frenchman,MarcelSchneider,to pull these disparatethreads togetherwithin a more comprehensive frameworkin Jean-Jacques Rousseauet l'espoirecologiste(1978).

Schneider'sbook is a call to arms in defense of nature in which the authorexplicitly attachesthe word "ecology"to environmental politics. The author of numerous novels and biographies,Schneider

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distinguishes scientificecology from politicalecology and recognizes Rousseau as the spiritualand philosophicalprecursorof GreenParty politics. He bases this honor, appropriately,upon Rousseau's critiqueof the modem idea of progress which has spawned contemporary"technofascism,"the nature-alienatedtechnological society of Westernculture.10Quoting from Rousseau'sDiscourseon Schneiderremarkson the inabilityof human theOriginsofInequality, achievement to provide happiness. The wholeness, technological unity and completeness of the individual can be saved only by avoiding the temptationsof "progress' which lead men to duplicity and alienationwithin the consumer society. In opposition to this corruptsociety, Schneideroffers political action towards utopian ideals imbued with ecological principles. "Onlyutopia can still save the world.""

CreditingRousseau with the founding of a new religion which teaches us "to feel God in nature,"Schneiderobserves that Rousseau contemplatednatureand "saw God in the barbarityof the sun, in the passing clouds, and in the falling rain, sweet and pure."'12 But above all, he recognizes the importance,for the coherenceof Rousseau's system of ideas, of the concept of the stateof natureas "a point of view, an ideal concept without historical reality ... that

allows Rousseau to be an uncivilized thinkerin the middle of his own culture, to be a regressive revolutionary...."'3 ForSchneider, the system of thought which Rousseaufounded upon the concept of the state of nature is 'an objectof revelationlike the Bible,the N4ew Testament,and the Koran,"'14 a system which continues to thrive and provide insight in our own time.

Armed with the myth of the noble savage, the postulate of the state of nature,and the idea of utopia, Rousseau: thus rises against Rome, against Geneva, against all of Europenourished on Plato, SaintThomas,Descartes,and Voltaire. The state of nature served him as a war machine against Westerncivilization, against the tyrannyof church and state, against the all-powerfuleconomy, against the idolatry of money.15 Embracingthe principlesof the Physiocrats,Rousseau argued for decentralizationand life within a ruraleconomy, as opposed to the role of urbanconsumer and passive citizen. Thus, through the applicationof utopian ideals, Rousseauis recognizedby Schneideras having prescribed"a returnto nature"in the form of an

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agrariansteady-statesociety in which individuals develop a strong attachmentto nature,i.e., an environmentalethic.16Most of the remainderof Schneider'sbook is devoted to elaboratingthis ideal by tracingRousseau'squest for the meaning and experienceof human happiness, possible only through the adoption of an environmental ethic and a life close to nature,through his majorworks, especially the Confessions, LaNouvelleHeloise,and LesReveriesd'unPromeneur Solitaire.An analysis of the religion naturalto man and of natural education based on the Emilecomplete Schneider'sexegesis by relatingRousseau'squest for authentic freedom to his vision of what we now call the steady-stateor sustainablesociety. Furtherdetails of Schneider'sstudy will be considered within the context of the following section of this article.

Rousseauon Nature and CulturalDevelopment The rise of environmentalismas a popular movement was greatly stimulatedby a growing concernover the side effects of modern industrial-technologicalsociety. The problemsof polluting and destroying our life-supportsystems have been brought to the attentionof the general public by such books as Henry Fairfield Osborn'sOurPlunderedPlanet(1948),RachelCarson'sSilentSpring (1962),and BarryCommoner'sTheClosingCircle(1971). The related problem concerningthe hidden premises underlying the development or "progress"of Westernand Western-dominated nations toward increasedindustrialization,urbanization,and economic efficiencybased upon the accumulationof scientificand technologicalknowledge has been brought to the attentionof a more limited (largelyacademic)audience during the 1970sand 1980s. E. F. Schumacher'sSmallis Beautiful(1973),William Ophuls' Ecology and thePoliticsof Scarcity(1977),and the writings of the "deep ecology" movement, among others, have examined the assumptions of our contemporarygrowth-orientedculture ana drawn the general conclusion that a continuationof the present system of beliefs and practicescan only lead to massive environmental,economic, and social disaster in the 21st century.'7These critiquesof "progress"as we generally understandit are not without historicalprecedent,and within the Americanculturaltraditionmay be tracedback through Aldo Leopold to JohnMuir,George PerkinsMarsh,Nathaniel Hawthorne,and Henry David Thoreauuntil we arriveat the agrarianrepublicanismof ThomasJefferson.'8This genealogy, which has also given rise to increasedenvironmentalawareness and

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the eventual formulationof an environmentalethic, did not, however, initiate the modem critiqueof the idea of progress. This had already been accomplishedin the middle of the 18thcenturyby Rousseau. By comparisonwith Rousseau'sanalysis, referencesto the destructivenessand wrong-headednessof modem "progress"made

by Americanpre-environmentalistsin the 19thcenturyare relatively brief and superficial,perhaps with the exception of Thoreau's Walden.'9

Although Rousseau's critiqueof the idea of progress was highly sophisticated,it was also somewhat disjointed,leading to confusion and controversyfor more than two centuries. Only in recentdecades has Rousseau scholarshipshown signs of a growing consensus in interpretingRousseau'sideas concerninghuman progress. This deeper understandingis dependent upon scholarly interpretationof the Discourseon theArtsandSciencesor First Discourse(1750),the Discourseon theOriginofInequalityor Second Discourse(1755),and the relationshipbetween the first two Discourses and Rousseau's later works, particularlythe Discourseon Political Economy(1755),the SocialContract(1762),and the Emile(1762).20 Rousseau's thought concerningprogress was generally interpretedas anti-progressiveor regressivepriorto the 20th century. During this century, however, intellectualhistorianshave gradually refined our understandingof the idea of progress, beginning with J. B. Bury'sdefinition of progressas the idea "that mankind has moved, is moving, and will move in a desirable direction."2'The desirabledirectionof progressis, accordingto Bury,an increase in the knowledge and/or happiness of mankind.

More recentlyWarrenWagarhas argued that Bury'sclassic definition was too rigid, and that many differentideas of progress have existed since the late 17th century,when the triumphsof Westernscience and technology first gave rise to an optimistic interpretationof the meaning of history.22Anotheruseful distinction is CharlesVan Doren's differentiationof processor "irreversible cumulative change"from progressor "irreversiblemeliorative change."23If the long-term effects of industrialand technological development are ultimately destructive to the well-being and happiness of mankind, then what appeared to the 19th and 20th centuries to be progress will have turned out to be process, and a regressive process at that. In the remainderof this section, I will summarize several environmentallyimportantcontributionsto our understandingof Rousseau's thought concerninghuman "progress" or culturaldevelopment.

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MarioEinaudi,in TheEarlyRousseau(1967),made it clear that Rousseau was acutely aware of the distinctionbetween process and progress,and showed that Rousseau's "stateof nature,"as an ideal pole in the past, and his "generalwill," as an ideal pole in the future,are norms accordingto which we must determine "the discordancebetween the real and the possible, between fact and right."24DescribingRousseau's"skillin describingprogress in terms of the difficultiesit creates,"25Einaudigoes far towards explaining the commonplacemisconceptionof Rousseau as an unhappy, pessimistic,and misguided idealist. Rousseau was, beneathhis apparentparadoxes,farmore realisticthan his contemporaries,but in order to deal with the problem of progress realistically,it was necessaryfor him to establish the ideal norms which earned him the reputationof unrealisticutopian idealist. As Einaudiwrites: The point is not to consider progress the inevitable reward that man will reap with time; it should be to identify the problemswhich have to be solved if progress is to be achieved. Thereis nothing inherentin the mere condition of social life to bring about happiness. It must be a special kind of social life.26 Farfrom advising escape from society, Rousseau's mechanismfor real progressis politicalinterventionwithin society to createnew politicalforms which will allow the recovery of qualities, such as empathy and cooperativeness,which existed when men were closer to the state of nature. He hoped that men could be taught "thateach should see in the good of all the greatestgood he can hope to achieve for himself."27This ideal could never be realized in a competitive,commercial,industrialsociety, but only in a rural, agrarianway of life which stressed the primacy of agricultureand the positive effects on human behavior of a life close to nature.

Einaudi'sanalysis of Rousseau'sdialecticalapproachto progress,as a problem to be solved ratherthan a supposed benign tendency in history, illuminatesthe 20th centurydebates over the varietiesor types in which the idea of progress is expressed.

Elsewhere,I have attemptedto show a dichotomy in progressive thought, dating from the schism between the ideas of Encyclopedistsand Rousseau,between developmental progress which attempt to justify or prove progressive development from the historicalrecordand utopianideas of progress which

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suggest the ambivalentresults of historicalchange but offer models or goals for future progressive change.28Einaudiimplicitly describes Rousseau's utopianprogressivism when he writes: Rousseau does not advocate returnto the original state of nature,and he does not believe that the realizationof the ideal state is possible. Thereis no utopia tomorrow,only perhaps the beginning of a change that will bring man closer to it. Even though the state of natureis not more than a vision of how man might have been in the beginning, and the ideal state [i.e., utopia] is no more than a hope of how man in society might live in the end, they both remain essential guides to our thinkingand our conduct.29 The essence of developmental progressivism is the perceptionof historicalmovement away from a beginning,away from the state of nature and the naturalworld within which early man existed. It also involves the hope or faith (especiallyin the 19thcentury)that the accumulationof knowledge, particularlyscientificand technological knowledge, results in general progress.Such a conceptionof progress views the transformationof natureinto cultureas intrinsicallybenign. Perceivingthis interpretationof history as dangerously misleading, Rousseaulooked to the future,the endof history, and offered a utopian prescriptionfor change toward that end which would be less destructiveof both man and nature.

MarcelSchneidercorroboratesthis interpretationof Rousseau as the seminal utopian progressivist. He believes that Rousseau's social ideas, ignored relativeto his politicalphilosophy and pre-Romanticsensibility, comprisea utopian model for progress towards a sustainablesociety, writing that "thescientific,political, and philosophical aspects of ecology are summed up in the word utopia."30Schneider,identifying Rousseauas a utopian thinkerin the traditioncreatedby ThomasMore,explains that Rousseauused the term "idealworld" for "utopia,"by which he meant a normative model (the state of nature)with which to compareexisting reality.

He directs us to Rousseau'sobservationsthat natureinspires sensibility and respect for the natureof things, and that men have been corruptedfrom self-love to vanity and pride (anthropocentrism)in human society. Schneiderexplicitly states the concept of what I have termed utopian progressivism:

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Accordingto Rousseau, the ideal world is not a chimerical world, produced out of our imaginationand desire; it is the perceptibleworld which might recoverits original purity and harmony. If we apply our will and determinationto restorethem, perhapswe will come to approach,not the state of nature which is permanentlyabolished in the depths of time, but a condition infinitely superior to that which presently oppresses us.31 Finally,historianLeo Marxhas distinguished between two opposed ideas of progressin Americanthought since the late 18th century. The earlier,Enlightenmentbelief, which he associates with ThomasJeffersonand BenjaminFranklin,he characterizesas a "goaloriented"idea of progress which "perceivedscience and technology to be in the service of liberationfrom political oppression."32The later, opposed view he terms the "technocratic"idea of progress, in which "Americanscelebratedthe advance of science and technology with increasingfervor,but ... began to detach the idea from the goal of social and political liberation."33By the late 19th century, accordingto Marx,the technocraticidea of progress was completely detached from social and political goals, having become "abelief in the sufficiencyof scientificand technologicalinnovation as the basis for general progress."34 The reductionistidea of progress describedby Marxis basically the same as the viewpoint which Rousseau criticized during the middle of the 18thcentury in the first two Discourses,in which he recognized an inverse correlationbetween the gradual increasein human knowledge and individual freedom and equality.

The process of development, which had given rise to modem science and technology while creatingunjustpolitical, economic, and social hierarchies,could not become truly progressive until goals, ideal or utopian goals, were formulatedas a basis for change toward a good and just society within which science and technology would play their proper roles.35Rousseau'scritiqueof the dominant Enlightenmentidea of progress (which assumed or hoped that social and general progress would follow the progress of science and technology) thus gave rise to a dichotomy between what I have called developmental and utopian progressivism.?6The similarityof Leo Marx'stechnocraticand goal-orientedcategoriesis obvious, and the Frenchand Americanrevolutions are testimony to a period in history when utopian or goal-orientedprogressivismwas taken seriously in a time of socio-politicalcrisis. For well over a century,

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however, this criticalRousseaueanapproachto progress as a problem to be solved has remainedin a limbo of obscurity,until the environmentalcrisis of recentdecades demanded its recallin the form of the development of principlesand utopias outlining the goals of sustainable,steady-statesocieties.

Rousseau's critiqueof Westernbourgeois society and its destructiveconception of progress was followed by an alternative, constructivevision in the Discourseon PoliticalEconomy,the Social Contract,and Emile. In the Discourseon PoliticalEconomyRousseau defined the original meaning of the word "economy' as "...the wise and legitimate government of the house for the common good of the whole family. The meaning of the term was then extended to the government of that great family, the State."37 In considering the

political economy of states, Rousseau insisted that, unlike the domestic economy of the family, the political economy "...need only

maintainitself; and it can easily be proved that any increasedoes it more harm than good."38Applying the analogy of the body politic "as a kind of living being," Rousseau identified the will of that body as the "generalwill, which tends always to the preservationand welfare of the whole and of every part, and is the source of the laws...."39 Although public decisions may be wrong, "...this never

happens unless the people is seduced by private interests,which the credit or eloquence of some clever persons substitutesfor those of the State...."40 Rousseau goes on to distinguish particular wills

(based upon self-interest)from the general will and to emphasize the need for civic education which will make men love and obey the laws of the state. Thus, "...every man is virtuous when his particularwill is in all things conformableto the general will...."41 Rousseau proceeds to the problemof economic equality, which he would solve: not by building hospitals for the poor, but by securing the citizens from becoming poor. The unequal distributionof inhabitantsover the territory,when men are crowded together in one place, while other places are depopulated; the encouragementof the arts that ministerto luxury and of purely industrialarts at the expense of useful and laborious crafts;the sacrificeof agricultureto commerce....42 Such are the evils which, in Rousseau'seyes, a wise administration ought to prevent, for they undermine "...good

morals, respect for the laws, patriotism,and the influenceof the

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general will."43Well aware of the commercialfermentof his time, and a believer in physiocraticprinciples,Rousseau clung tenaciously to his vision of an agrariansociety based upon the value of land both for a sustainablesociety and for the maintenanceof civic virtue through strong public education in a healthy body politic.

Recognizing private property as "...the most sacred of all rights of

citizenship,"he also recognized the need to set aside some property as public domain, and that "...it is not of the essence of public demesnes to be badly administered."44 Urging "...the prudent

managementof what one has,"Rousseau warns us that the needs of a state grow

"..

.less from any real necessity than from the increase of

useless desires..."45 These include the desire for large professional armies. Turningto taxation,which overburdenedfarmersin his own time, he recommendedindividual taxes in direct proportionto real wealth, and import,export,and luxury taxes to ease the burdens of taxation on farmers and the poor "...to prevent the continual

increaseof inequalityof fortune,the subjectionof such a multitude of artisansand useless servantsto the rich, the multiplicationof idle persons in our cities, and the depopulation of the countryside."46 The Discourseon PoliticalEconomyis compactbut contains ideas which would be expanded upon in great detail in TheSocial Contractand Emile,works which indirectlyhave contributedto GreenPartypolitical thought and environmentaleducation. Before consideringRousseau'stwo masterpiecesbriefly, we should take note of how closely intertwinedare his conceptions of the good political life and the limited, sustainableeconomy of the no-growth, agrariansociety. Rousseauperceived, particularlythrough his study of political history, the perniciouseffect of long-term economic growth and commercializationupon the moral fiber and civic virtue of the citizens of past societies. The limited state, closely bound to the practiceof agriculturein its economic life, was for him the only possible sociopoliticalstructurewithin which men could live authentic,virtuous, and uncorruptedlives as citizens, with the necessarypracticeof commerceand industry held to a minimum.

This utopian model was a progressive ideal for Rousseau, linked as it was to politicaland economic egalitarianism,and it is an obvious antecedentof today's steady-state,ecotopian alternativesto the technologicalsociety.

Rousseau's SocialContracthas exerted a considerable influence upon the Westernworld's attempts to found politically legitimate societies. It also refutes the image of Rousseau as a naive primitivistwho, as Voltairemocked, wished us to go back on all

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fours and live in caves. Concerninghumanity'spassage to the civil state, Rousseau wrote: The passage from the state of nature to the civil state produces a very remarkablechange in man, by substituting justice for instinctin his conduct, and by giving his actions the morality that they had formerlylacked. ...did not the abuses of this new condition often degrade him below that which he left, he would be bound to bless continuallythe happy moment which took him from it forever,and instead of a stupid and unimaginativeanimal, made him an intelligent being and a man.47 Designed to complement the SocialContract,Emiledealt with the problem of how to educate the moral man and virtuous citizen for life in the legitimate polity. Educationaccordingto naturemeant for Rousseau to follow natureas a tutor throughfollowing the laws of nature and dispensing with constrainingartificewherever possible. It also engaged a methodology of learningdirectlythrough the experienceof nature,to the extent that practicalityallowed.

Earlyin the third book of Emile,Rousseauencouragesthe readerinterestedin education to "Makehis pupil attentive to the phenomena of nature...," but to allow the child or youth to learnby reasoning his way to answer questions in order to avoid his mind becoming ". ..the plaything of the opinion of others."48Whateverthe branchof the study of nature, the importantpedagogical principleis to study the thing itself ratherthan symbols or models of natural objects.Giving geography as an example, Rousseauurges the teacheror tutor to begin teaching the fundamentalsof the earth's motion as follows: One fine evening we walk to a suitable place where a broad horizon allows us a full view of the setting sun, and we take note of some objectswhich make the place of its setting recognizable. The next day, to get a breathof fresh air, we returnto the same place before the sun rises. One can see it announcing itself from afar from the streaksof fire that it projectsbefore itself. The conflagrationincreases;the east appears to be in flames: in theirbrilliancewe await the star for a long time before it shows itself. Every minute one expects to see it appear,until it finally does. A shining point appears like a flash of lightning and immediatelyfills all

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space; the veil of darknessgives way and falls. Man recognizes his residenceand finds it embellished. The foliage has gained a new brightnessduring the night; the newborn day which illuminatesit, the first rays which gild it, show it covered with a shining network of dew reflecting light and color to the eye. The birds join in chorus and togethergreet the Fatherof life; at this moment not a single one is quiet. Theirgentle warbling is slower and sweeter than during the rest of the day; it has the feel of the languor of a peaceful awakening. The gatheringof all these objects carriesto the senses an impression of freshness which seems to penetrateto the soul. It is a half-hourof enchantment which no man can resist;a spectacleso great, so beautiful, so delicious, that it leaves no one cold.49 Fromthis experienceof the beauty of nature the tutor leads Emile to questions regardingthe rising and setting of the sun and related questions of geography and astronomy. A similar approach is applied to the study of physics, chemistry,climate, animals and plants. Moreand more in his later years Rousseau would turn to botany. His botanicalstudies led to the publicationof his LettresSur LaBotanique(written 1771-1773)and FragmensPourUn Dictionnaire Des TermesD'UsageEn Botanique.

Rousseau's theoreticaland ideal pupil was also to imbibe a naturalreligionbased upon recognitionof the beauty and orderof God's creation. The paragraphintroducingthe "Professionof Faith of the SavoyardVicar"capturesthis outlook in the beautiful descriptionof the Po Valley at sunrise in which "...nature displayed all of her magnificenceto our eyes in order to provide the text for our conversation."50This recognitionof aesthetic value in nature was complemented,in Julie,by souls of noble sensibility worthy of fully appreciatingthe design of God's universe.

The Question of Rousseau'sDirectInfluenceUpon Transcendentalism Within twelve years, from 1750-1762,Rousseau had constructeda system of ideas rangingfrom a critiqueof the beliefs and practicesof WesternCivilizationto a set of utopian models for reformin the realms of politics, society, education,and religion, all within the context of a deep respectfor nature. His romanticnovel, Julie,ou La

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NouvelleHeloise,would change Westernaestheticattitudestoward nature irrevocably.

Alfred Biese, in TheDevelopment of theFeelingforNaturein the MiddleAgesandModernTimes,wrote: The most epoch-makingevent in Europeanfeeling for Nature was the appearanceof LaNouvelleHeloise(1761). ...Rousseau's influence upon feeling in general, and feeling for Nature in particular,was an extraordinaryone, widening and deepening at once. By his strong personalimpulse he impelled it into more naturalpaths, and at the same time he discovered the power of the mountains.... His feelings woke the liveliest echo, and it was not Francealone who profited by the lessons he taught. He was no mountaineerhimself, but he pointed out the way, and others soon followed it.51 Although Haller had written poeticallyof the beauty of the Alps in 1750and de Saussurehad begun climbing in 1760,52Biese nevertheless affirmsthe overwhelming importanceof Rousseau: Rousseau was the real exponent of rapturefor the high Alps and romanticscenery in general. Isolated voices had expressed some feeling before him, but it was he who deliberatelyproclaimedit, and gave romanticscenery the first place among the beauties of Nature. He did not.. .discover our modern feeling for Nature;the great men of the Renaissance,even the Hellenic poets, fore-ranhim;but he directed it, with feeling itself in general,into new channels.53 The FrenchintellectualhistorianDaniel Mornetagrees that "...it was chiefly the ModemHeloisethat suddenly made Switzerland and the Swiss mountains fashionable."54In LeSentimentDe La NatureEn FranceMornetfocused on the psychologicalaspects of the new aesthetic response to nature initiatedby Rousseauin Julie.

Mornetargues that, while there has been a desire to escape to the tranquilityand simplicity of the country or pastoralnaturesince the beginnings of urban life, a second and entirely modern mode of relating to nature was introducedby Rousseau. This modern sensibility would bring to the spectacleof naturea refinementof feeling and a moral purity of the soul or heart. Thus, for JeanJacques and kindred spirits "...nature is a condition of the soul. She

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reflectseverything that fills the heartsof her lovers."-5The love of nature as a manifestationof the psychological or spiritualcondition of the individual would, as such, limit the number of her worshippers in this more profound, second type of perception to individuals who were solitaryby nature. Mornetwrites that even if Rousseau'scontemporarieshave not admitted owing their new ways to him, that "...if they have gone beyond the rustic idyll, if they have brought to naturea soul finally open to solitude, to reverie,and to all the resulting emotions, it is because Rousseau has given them this new soul."56 The passage in Juliewhich best illustratesMornet's argumentis as follows (Saint-Preuxhas just led Julie,now Wolmar's faithfulwife, to an isolated spot where Saint-Preuxadored her years before): This solitaryplace formed a retreat,wild and deserted but full of those kinds of beauties which please only sensitive souls and appearhorribleto others. A torrentcaused by the thawing snows rolled in a muddy streamtwenty feet from us and noisily carriedalong dirt, sand, and stones. Behind us a chain of inaccessiblecrags separatedthe flat place where we were from that part of the Alps called the glaciers, because of the enormous peaks of ice which, incessantly increasing,have covered them since the beginning of the world. To the right, forests of black fir afforded us a gloomy shade. A large wood of oak was to the left beyond the torrent,below us that immense body of water that the lake forms in the midst of the Alps separatedus from the rich shores of the Vaud region, and the peak of the majesticJura crowned the landscape.57 It is not difficult to imagine how solitaryand sensitive souls, among others, were attractedto Rousseau's vivid descriptionsof Alpine scenery. JudithH. McDowell, translatorof the above passage, agrees with Mornetthat a second, moral sense of "nature" was introducedby Rousseau, who believed "...that though most men have been pervertedby society, there remain a few, the 'sensitive souls,' in whom 'nature'still persists."58This observation should lead us back to where we began, to Rousseau's condemnation of the corrupting,nature-alienatingattitudes and practicesof 18th century Europeancivilizationand its false conception of progressin the first two Discourses.Rousseau and fellow possessors of a deeper

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sensibility and a "higher"moralitymay become criticsof the established, commercialsociety around them by virtue of having avoided denaturizationand by maintaininga continuing close relationshipwith nature,the ultimate source of moral virtue beneath the facades and masks of a dehumanizing culture.

D. G. Charlton,in New Imagesof theNaturalin France(1984), carefullydifferentiatesRousseau'sinfluence upon the appreciation of pastorallandscapes from his influence upon the appreciationof the "wild sublimity"of mountain landscapes. Charltonalso delineates the role of Juliein initiatinga trend towards gardens that imitate wild nature to take the place of the rigid, formalgardens that reflectedthe anthropocentrismof classicism. Concerningthe new pastoralismof the 18thcentury,Charltonfinds Rousseau "...the undeniably outstanding figure, certainlyin Franceand arguablyin Europe...."59Remarkingon Rousseau's sense of unity in natureas of greaterimportancethan scientificdetail, which Rousseau also knew as a scientificbotanizer,Charltonnotes the importanceof Rousseau's sense of psychological, aesthetic,moral, religious, and even economic harmony with nature.

More than any other Frenchwriter of the centuryRousseau discerned and expressed a sense of the potentialharmony between man and nature. In the course of the eighteenth century ... the notion of nature as a mechanism, as a

divinely-designed order, perfectin its essentially passive regularity,gradually yielded, in some minds at least, to a notion of a no less divinely-intended 'harmony'between two creative,developing 'organisms'- man and the natural world. No-one in Franceprior to the Romanticmovement illustratesthat change more clearly than Rousseau.60 Charltonemphasizes the point that the nature which Rousseauloved and admired was predominantly pastoral even though he was "... one of the first Frenchwriters to describewild mountain scenery."61

Acknowledging the importanceof Juliefor the aestheticappreciation of mountains,CharltoncharacterizesRousseau'sinterestas "focused far less on mountain peaks than on mountain slopes.. .an undoubted and sincere affectionfor mountainscenery,a sense of affinity,or psychological harmony,between a rathergeneralizedwild nature and some of man's more elevated or 'sublime'inner experiences...."62

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In sum, Charlton'srecentanalysis of Rousseau's view of man and natureessentially corroboratesthe claims made by Biese and Mornetearlierthis century. Charlton'sinterpretationof Rousseau's strongly moral and spiritualexperienceof nature is also suggestive of Rousseau'ssimilarityto Wordsworthand Emerson.

Rousseau'scontributionto the development of an aesthetic appreciationof natureowed much, of course, to the earlier contributionsof Englishauthorsduring the late 17th and early 18th centuries. ChristopherThackerrecognizes Shaftesbury'sThe Moralists(1709)as the earliestwork leading towards the Romantic love of nature,63observing that "in the mid-1750sseveral-books appeared which 'codify' the developing approval of wildness. The principalwritersare Burke,Young, Diderot and Rousseau. They are all indebted to Shaftesbury."64 Having establishedRousseau'saffinity with later natureworshipping criticsof Westernculture, the question may be asked, to what extentdid Rousseau influence the traditionof love for nature,i.e., the pre-environmentalismof Europeand America? It appears to be generally agreed upon by a majorityof scholarsthat Europeans,particularlythe Romanticpoets, were strongly affected

by Rousseau.

Not atypically,Howard MumfordJones writes: Rousseau is the complete manifestationnot so much of romanticphilosophy as of the romanticoutlook. Therewere of course egotists before him. But never previously had a single genius turned everything-pedagogy, love, political theorizing,religious exhortation,economics, a new system of musical annotation,anthropologyhowever naive, and psychology however unsystematic,into an attackupon the ordinaryand the traditional.... Rousseau transformed sensibility into raptureand despair. Des Grieux,Werther, the Agathon of Wieland,the KarlMoor of Schiller,the Childe Harold of Byron,and the Rene of Chateaubriand personages such as these are his contemporariesor his imaginativeoffspring.65 More specificallyin relation to nature,ChristopherThacker writes: Almost everything written by Jean-JacquesRousseau (171278) has its place in the development of romanticism. For

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more than twenty-five years, from his Discourssur lessciences et lesartsof 1750until the Reveries dupromeneur solitaire written in 1777-8,he said that naturewas good; that society was corrupt,and was a corruptinginfluence,and that man's happiness was dependent on his living a life which was 'natural'and which had thereforerejectedthe ways of society.... Unlike Burkeor Diderot, however, who both have deeply social leanings, Rousseaunever goes back on his allegiance to natureand his condemnationof modern society.66 Even one of Rousseau's strongestcriticsin the 20th century, Irving Babbitt,pays homage to the power of Rousseau'sinfluence in the title of his book, RousseauandRomanticism.Babbittjustifiesthe use of Rousseau's name in his title "...because he comes at a fairly early stage in the internationalmovement the rise and growth of which I am tracing,and has on the whole supplied me with the most significantillustrationsof it."67Anothernegative index of Rousseau's importancefor Romanticconceptionsof natureis that in early 19th century Americathe two men who were most scorned as enemies of civilization (in the sense of nature transformedinto humanized landscapes) were Rousseau and Chateaubriand.68 "Idealizationsof primitivism,concepts of a beauty or value in nature independent of civilization,belonged to the fool or to the writerof fantasy."69

Ironically,at the same time that industrious Americanswere transformingthe Americanwilderness into civilizationand many of them demeaning Rousseau's natureworship, others were importing Rousseau's nature-orientededucationalideas. From 1805-1824a number of Americanswere futilely attemptingto put into practice the educational system of JohannHeinrichPestalozzi,a Swiss disciple of Rousseau's educationaltheorieswho emphasized drawing, collecting, field trips and other activities oriented to the collection of scientificfacts.70 Thus, during the first two decades of the 19thcentury,when EuropeanRomanticswere celebratingRousseau'sgenius, most Americansknew his name only as a term of opprobriumapplicable to unrealisticdreamersand enemies of civilization. This popular attitude has been perpetuatedin the minds of many Americans down to the present day. Despite this majorityview, some literate Americanshad been reading Rousseau'sbooks since the time of ThomasJeffersonand imbibing his argumentsin defense of the

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values of nature. How, then, were Emerson,and later,Thoreauand Muir affectedby Rousseau'sideas concerninghumanity's relationshipto nature? The two keys to answering this question are, first, the publicationand reading history of Julieand, secondly, documentationof Rousseau'sdirect influence upon RalphWaldo Emersonand WilliamWordsworth.

Paul M. Spurlin,in Rousseauin America,1760-1809, concluded from an exhaustive study of Americanfamiliaritywith Rousseau's works that only Julie,and to a lesser extent Emile,enjoyed a vogue in Americaduring the 18th and early 19thcenturies.71 Interestin Emilewas generally relatedto the support which sections of the "Creedof the SavoyardVicar"lent to belief in Christianity.

Julie,on the other hand, "fromthe very year of its publicationin 1761,was advertised in the newspapers until the close of the century and even later."2 It was recommendedto a friend by Thomas Jeffersonand common in private librariesin Virginia.73It was even a kind of "best-seller"in the decade 1790-1799,competing with Gulliver'sTravelsand the plays of Shakespeare.74JudithMcDowell agrees that Juliehad, for the time, '...an unusually large reading public in Englandand, subsequently,in America."75Therewere at least ten Englisheditions of Julie,and one published in Philadelphia in 1796. The last of the English editions was published in 1810,and was not reprinted,probablybecause of the effect of the French Revolutionupon Rousseau'spopularity. Attacksupon Rousseau's political writings, led by Edmund Burke,were followed by a decline in the popularityof Julie,although Shelley and Byron,and later on Eliot and Ruskin,were impressed by it.76McDowell also writes that Julie"invitedthe readerto identify the hero with his creatorand thus FriedrichSchlegel's Lucinde, blazed the trailfor Goethe's Werther, Tieck's WilliamLovell,and Chateaubriand'sRene."77 Carefulstudy of Emerson'sjournals,notebooks,and letters proves beyond any doubt that Emersonwas an ardent readerand admirerof Rousseau. In the notebooks,Emersonhas recorded quotationsfrom Emile,both in Frenchand in translation,in 1821and 1833.78On January4-5, 1825he recordedthe precise numberof pages which he had read each day in Emile.79In 1847,in the journals,Emersonwrote "Iam always reminded,and now again by reading last night in Rousseau'sConfessions,that it is not the events in one's life, but in the faculty of selecting and recordingthem, that the interestlies."80Elsewherein the journalshe generally recommendsRousseau'sEmileto others and calls Rousseau "...the unrivalledobserverof infantiledevelopment...'"81 In the notebooks

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in 1844he refers to himself as "...a worse self-tormentorthan Rousseau."82Thereare numerous other quotationsfrom Rousseau's writings and referencesto Rousseau scatteredthrough Emerson's journals,notebooks and letters,leaving little doubt that he was directly in touch with Rousseau'sideas for decades.

A recentbiographer,writing about Emerson'spersonal anxiety in response to the heated religious controversygeneratedby his transcendentalphilosophy, writes: Emersondenies having sought to conduct a polemic against the champions of Unitarianismand protests his incapacity for devising argumentsin his defense-it is the credo of Rousseau's Vicarof Savoy all over again, even down to the same calculatedinnocence: 'I will not argue with you, nor even try to win you over; I only want to show you what I believe in the simplicity of my own heart. As I speak, consult yours, and you have done all that I ask.' [Emile, Book IV] For dialogue, for the exchange of incomplete truths, for reciprocaljudgment Emersonsubstitutesthe inward method of illumination..

The same authoropines that Emerson ...never succeeds in driving from his mind the idea that he is a misfit, almost an outlaw.... It is perhaps this traitof characterthat is responsible for the mistakennotion that one source of Emerson'swritings is the psychology of the pioneer. If one insists on finding a sponsor for Emerson, Rousseau is much more likely than Daniel Boone.84 Another recentbiographer,writing of Emerson'stravels in England in the later years of his life, recountsan incident when Emersonand Miss MarianEvans (GeorgeEliot)were travelling together, with other friends, by carriageto Stratford-upon-Avon.

Miss Evans was an ardent admirerof Emerson,having read his Essays. "What one book do you like best?'he asked her, and she said, 'Rousseau'sConfessions.''So do I,' he replied. 'Thereis a point of sympathy between us."'"5 Direct influence of Rousseau'sideas upon Henry David Thoreaudoes not appear to be provable. However, Rousseau's majorworks "stood on Emerson'sbookshelves where Thoreauoften browsed. ...There is at least incontrovertibleevidence that Thoreau

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wished to read Rousseau,for in 1838the young college graduate, then very much under Emerson'sinfluence,jotted down as works to read LaNouvelle Hloise and Emile ... ."86 Thus, Emersoncertainly read some of Rousseau'sbooks, and it is quite possible that Thoreau did as well. It is less likely thatJohnMuir read Rousseau,although he was much influenced by the Transcendentalists.87In summary, then, there is unequivocalevidence that some of Rousseau's works were read by Jeffersonand Emerson,and possibly even Thoreau.

Only in the case of Emerson,however, is there incontestable evidence of Rousseau'sdirect influence.

WilliamWordsworthand Rousseau'sindirectinfluence upon the AmericanTranscendentalists Perhapsthe most significantdirect influence of Rousseau was upon WilliamWordsworth,the paradigmof nature worship in the English Romantictraditionand a majortutor of Emerson,Thoreau,and Muir. Peter Quennell, in RomanticEngland,writes that, at the age of 21, in 1791, "Wordsworthwas both an enthusiasticrepublicanand an ardentfollower of Jean-JacquesRousseau."88Quennell observes that Julieand Emileprofoundly affected social conduct in England and that many literatepeople regardedJulie"as a precious guidebook to the realms of thought and sentiment."89Concerning Rousseau'sinfluence upon Wordsworth,he furtherstates that: Wordsworth,though he discarded his social doctrinesonce the FrenchRevolution had released some of those doctrines in a peculiarlyviolent form, never quite outgrew the influence of Rousseau'spoetic sensibility.It haunts the pages of ThePreludeand all his finest youthful poems. He, too, had known the mysteriousstate of being experienced by Rousseau on the Isle of St. Pierre.90 George McleanHarper'scomprehensivebiography of Wordsworthalso recognizes Rousseau'sprofound influence upon the great English poet. Observingthat the young Wordsworth neglected other studies to read Rousseau and that Julietaught Wordsworthto let natureteach the basis of goodness, happiness, and joy, he concludes that "Rousseauit is, far more than any other man of letters...whose works have left their tracein Wordsworth's poetry."91Concerningthe subjectof education, Harperfinds "...indubitableevidence that Wordsworthhad absorbedthe

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philosophy of Emile."92It is also highly probablythat Wordsworth's deism was directly influenced by his reading of the "Creedof the SavoyardVicar"in Emile.93 Although Wordsworth'slove of nature and mountain scenery developed out of childhood experiencesin England,when touring Europeas a young man, and having read the he sought the waters of the Lacde Confessionsif not the Revenres, Bienne near Neuchatel which "...the most entrancing pages of

Rousseau has bestowed a romanticcharmupon."94Also, his praise of the awe-inspiringbeauty of the Swiss Alps is reminiscentof Rousseau's response to the Alps in Julie: My spirits have been kept in a perpetualhurryof delight, by the almost uninterruptedsuccession of sublime and beautiful objectswhich have passed before my eyes....

Among the more awful scenes of the Alps, I had not thought of a man, or a single createdbeing; my whole soul was turned to Him who produced the terriblemajestybefore me.... I am a perfectenthusiast in my admirationof nature in all her various forms.95 Wordsworth,like Rousseau,was to remaina humanist,a lover of mankind in addition to being a worshipperof a divinely created nature, for

"..

.certain philosophical principles, derived from

Rousseau, had.. .found a lodgement in Wordsworth'smind....

[A]ffection,love of fellowship, and zeal to conferkindness."% The influence of Wordsworthupon Emersonand Muir is as well established as the influence of Rousseau upon Wordsworth, whereas Wordsworth'sinfluence upon Thoreauis less certain.

Emersonvisited Wordsworthin 1833and JohnMuir visited Wordsworth'sgrave in his lateryears, both paying homage to a man whose ideas they revered,or at least respected.97Thoreau'sdebt to Wordsworthis masked by his dismissals of the Englishpoets "who put him to sleep.... Echoes in Waldenand especially in his late essay 'Walking'reveal that along with Wordsworth,whose influence is obvious, his reading of Keats and Shelley may have helped shape Thoreau'sromanticsensibility."98Anotherscholarconcludes, from a comparativestudy of the relationshipbetween man and naturein the works of Wordsworthand Thoreau: "Wordsworth,like Emerson,was a pervasive influence on Thoreau. In fact, it would be hard to overestimatethe influence of Wordsworthupon the AmericanTranscendentalistmovement of which Thoreauwas a part."99The same author cites evidence that RalphWaldo Emerson's

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Naturewas strongly influencedby Wordsworth'spoetry and that Naturewas a seminal book in Thoreau'slife. "Therewas a chain of influence from Wordsworthto Emersonto Thoreau,but Thoreau also read Wordsworthfor himself."'10The latter,direct influence is based upon Thoreau'sownership of Wordsworth'sCompletePoetical Worksand the Prelude,and citationsfrom and allusions to Wordsworth'swritings in Thoreau'sJournal.101 Thus, through Wordsworththe Rousseaueanvision of a benign and morally inspiring naturemade, in the decades following the popularity of Julieand Emile,a later transatlanticpassage to the Transcendentalists and JohnMuir.The descriptionsof pastoraland wild natureand the sense of a special, higher moral sensibility towards nature which Rousseau had enunciatedin Julieand which had enjoyed a vogue and exerted a direct influence on the Americanreading pubic in the late 18th century were reinforcedby Rousseau'sindirect influence through Wordsworthin the 19thcentury.

ThroughEnglish editions of Julie,Emile,TheConfessions, and other works in Frenchand English,Rousseau directly influenced Emersonand Wordsworthand exerted a secondary influence upon the later Transcendentalistsand their followers. Concurrently, Rousseau's writings as an amateurbotanistalso exerted a direct influence upon the Americanreading public: The study of naturalhistory became popular during the 1820sand 1830s.Women along with theirhusbands attended local lyceum lectureson science and religion. They deepened their appreciationof nature through the study of botany, geology, and mineralogy. Stimulatedby European books such as Jean-JacquesRousseau's Letterson theElements of BotanyAddressedto a Lady(London, 1785)and PriscillaBell Wakefield'sIntroduction to Botany,in a SeriesofFamiliar Letters(1786),plant collectingand identificationgained acceptancein New Englandsociety and its burgeoning female academies as appropriateexpressions of female piety.

Paintingflowers, describingthem in travel diaries, and collecting herbariumspecimens induced love of God. A growing consciousnessof the value of plants, animals, rural scenery,and wilderness, coupled with the need to improve urbanenvironments,propelled middle-class women into active work in the conservationmovement toward the end of the century.102

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Wordsworthwas undoubtedly the most significantchannel for passage of pre-environmentalistideas from Rousseauto the Americanpre-environmentalists,but there were other channels, including Byron,Shelley, and other English as well as German Romanticwriters,particularlyGoethe, through whom Rousseau's seminal ideas were refractedand passed on to latergenerationsof Europeansand Americans.103Why, then, has Rousseau'sinfluence upon Americanenvironmentalthought been ignored? The reasons are numerous and complex.

Firstof all, as explained above, in the early 19thcentury Rousseau's ideas were out of step with the movement of history, especially in Americawhere development of wild natureor wilderness outweighed appreciationof it, although the popularityof his introductionto the study of botany was part of the growing traditionof natureappreciationto which his earlierworks had given some impetus. Secondly, the excesses of the FrenchRevolution temporarilyundermined Rousseau'sradicaldemocraticideas, and by associationJulieand Emilewere less read. In GreatBritain, Wordsworthno longer wished to publicly proclaimRousseau's merits as he turned away from Frenchradicalismafter the French Revolution. Thirdly,as a non-Britishauthor,perhaps Rousseau's influence in Americawas attenuated,as comparedto that of Wordsworthand other EnglishRomantics. Fourthly,and of great importance,because Rousseau'ssystem of ideas evolved gradually and included real or apparentcontradictions,the reading of a single book out of the context of earlieror later works was often misleading (e.g., Voltaire'smisunderstandingthat Rousseauliterallywished mankind to returnto primitive savagery, "on all fours"). Fifthly, Rousseau'scritiqueof the idea of progress requiredtwo centuriesof history (as "progress")to pass before it could be clearly understood by scholars. We can only surmise as to whetherJefferson,Emerson, or Thoreauappreciatedit. Finally,Rousseau'spolitical ideas, his sentimentalismin general,and his deism probablyovershadowed his ambiguous understandingof nature,in which part of his mind was directed towards the architectonicstructureof a divinely ordered universe, and anotherpart was beginning to recognize the process of organicchange, as in the SecondDiscourse.While the subjectof Rousseau's transformismis peripheralto the thesis of this paper, it is importantto note that recentscholarshipfavors the interpretationthat Rousseau,along with Maupertius,Buffon, Diderot,and others, was an 18thcenturytransforrnistor preevolutionist.'04The schism in his view of natureresultingfrom the

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conflictbetween his deism and his transformismcontributedmore than a little to the paradoxesin his system of thought. Rousseau's "Nature"was an intellectualconstructstressed between the static paradigmof the GreatChain of Being and the emerging, dynamic evolutionaryparadigmof modem biology.

Condusion A passage from Donald Worster'sNature'sEconomyis useful to my argumentfor Rousseau'simportanceto Americanas well as Europeanenvironmentalists,especially deep ecologists, today: If ecology is a "subversivesubject,"as Paul Sears suggests, what is it trying to subvert? Some of the possibilities that come to mind are: the accepted notion of what science does; the value and institutionsof expansionarycapitalism;the bias against naturein western religion. All of these were targetsof the nineteenth-centuryRomantics;they were the first great subversives of modern times. Understanding their point of view, therefore,will contributeto our understandingof the ecology movement today.105 I have attempted to establish in this paper that Jean-Jacques Rousseau particularlydeserves recognitionby environmentalistsfor a complex view of man's relationto nature which greatly influenced the Romanticviewpoint describedby Worster. He was a foremost pre-environmentalistas well as the seminal pre-Romanticof the 18th century,and he deserves a well-recognized place at the beginning of the traditionthat extends from him through Wordsworth,Emerson, Thoreau,Marsh,Muir,and Leopold to contemporarydeep ecology criticsof an ecologically destructivecommercial-technological society.106Rousseau'snormativeimportanceas a pre-environmental thinkerat the beginning of modem Westernman's reassessmentof humanity's relationshipto nature (in response to the mechanistic attitudes of early modern science) seems unassailable. His influence upon Wordsworthand Romanticismis equally well established. In this paper I have also attempted to demonstratethat his indirect influence upon the Americanpre-environmentalisttraditionthrough Wordsworthreinforceda powerful directinfluence upon the nature philosophy of RalphWaldo Emerson,the fountainheadof American Transcendentalism.Rousseau'simportancefor the history of preenvironmen'talthought is first and foremost as a seminal interpreter

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of humanity's relationshipto nature,particularlyconceming the impact of the scientificrevolution and the modern idea of progress upon our perceptionof nature. Beyond the normativevalue of his system of ideas, his transatlanticinfluence upon Americanthought through Emersonand Wordsworthdeserves wider recognition.

1 The best and most thoroughtreatmentof the developmentof modernscientificthought concerningnatureis DonaldWorster,Nature'sEconomy:A Historyof Ecological Idas. (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversityPress, 1985). Also importantregardingthe scientificroots of ecologyis David Pepper,TheRootsofModernEnrironmentalism (London:CroomHelm, 1984). A broader perspectiveof Europeanideas concerningman and natureis providedby ClarenceJ.Glacken, Traceson theRhodianShore:NatureandCulturein Western ThoughtfromAncientTime to theEndof theEightenithCentury(Berkeley:Universityof CalifomiaPress, 197). Europeanideas concerning the philosophyand aestheticsof naturearesummarizedwith greaterdifficulty,but several importantsourcesareKeithThomas,ManandtheNaturalWorld:A HistoryoftheModernSensibity (New York:PantheonBooks, 1983),ChristopherThacker,TheWidnessPlsas 7The Originsof Romanticism (London:CroomHelm, 1983),and JosephWarrenBeach,TheConceptofNaturein Nineteenth-Century EnglishPoetry(New York:The MacmillanCompany,1936). Thenature philosophiesof Diederot,Goetheand Byronareconsideredin PeterFrance,Diderot,(Oxford: OxfordUniversityPress, 1983),KarlVietor,Goethe:TheThinker(Cambridge:HarvardUniversity Press, 1950),and ErnestJ.Lovell,Jr.,Byron,theRecordofa Quest:Studiesin a Poet'sConceptand Treatment of Nature(Austin:The Universityof TexasPress,1949). A briefaccountof the transatlanticcrossingof Europeanideas aboutnatureto Americais includedin RoderickNash, Widenss andtheAmerican Mind(New Haven:YaleUniversityPress,1982).The developmentof EuropeanRomanticideas into an Americanaestheticsof natureis discussedby HowardMumford Jones,0 StrangeNew World(New York:TheVikingPress,1964)and WalterL Nathan,"Thomas Cole and the RomanticLandscape'in GeorgeBoas,ed., Romanticism in America(New York: Russelland Russell,1961).

Duringthe late 18thand early 19thcenturiesthe idea of naturetook on new meaning.

Priorto the rise of Romanticsensibility,the scientificachievementsof IsaacNewton and his predecessorshad effecteda transformationfromthe idea of natureas manifestationand symbolof the ChristianGod'sorderlycosmos,withinwhich He periodicallyintervened,to the idea of a naturecreatedby God but capableof functioningby naturallaws without God'sintervention.

Thismechanistic,clockwork,Newtonianconceptof naturedominatedthe thoughtof the Enlightenmentand led some philosophersto a materialisticinterpretationof naturein which God was irrelevantor did not exist. The dominantpre-Romanticand Romanticresponseto this threat to religiousfaithwas deism, a beliefsystem which allowed some men to worshipeithera Christianor non-Christiandeity throughthe worship of nature,His creation.Thus,the deistic religiousbeliefs of the Romanticpoets and artists,as well as those of the Amexican Transcendentalists, have been understoodas a necessarytransitionfrommedieval supernaturalismto modernnaturalismand disbelief. Naturethus tookon a uniquerole as the approachablemanifestationof the Divineuntil themiddle of the 19thcentury.

Eversince Darwin,however,naturehas graduallybeen disassociatedfromdivinityin artas well as in popularreligiousbelief. Despiterelativityand the 'Tao of Physics,"men generallyseek religiousconsolationin traditional,individualisticbeliefsystemswhile regarding natureas manipulable,spiritlessmatter. Perhapsthis persistentdualismexpains why we can simultaneouslyadmireand "worship'natwe today while unabashedlymanipulatingand abusing it.

In 1936,JosephWarrenBeachwrote in TheConceptof Naturein Nindeenth-Century EnglishPoetry,(p5.): The humanmind cannotsuddenlypass with ease and comfortfromany formof faith to agnosticismor unbelief. It instinctivelyprovidesitself with means for easingoff the emotionalstrainof such a transition.It providesphilosophicalbridgesfromfaithto unfaith. And such a bridgewas the romanticcult of nature,consideredin the large. It

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made posible the passagewithouttoo greatemotionalstrainfrommedievalChristian faith to the sciendficpositivismwhich tends to dominatecultivatedminds today.

Thus,to both believersin traditionalreligionsand unbelievingpositiviststoday, natureis essentiallydevoid of spiritualcontentor significanceand, therefore,appearsto possess ess value thanit did to Rousseauand the Romantics.

GeorgeBoas,"Nature,"in the DictionaryoftheHistoryofIdeas,PhilipP. Wiener,Ed. (New York: ?arles Scribner'sSons, 1974),V. ml p. 346-351.

Concening Rousseau'stransformism,see, for example,RogerD. Masters,"Evolutionand Hstoxyin Politcal TheoryfromAristotleto Marx."Paperpresentedto the Symposium Equilibriaversus Gradualism:PoliticalImplications,"1984AnnualMeetingof the '"Punctuated AmericanAssociationfor the Advancementof Science,New York,and AsherHorowitz,Rousseau, Nature,andHistory(Toronto:Universityof TorontoPress,1987),especiallyp. 50-85. Forhis botanizingand its philosophicalsignificance,see Paul A. Cantor,"TheMetaphysicsof Botany," Southwest Review,70 (Summer,1985), p. 362-380,and FrancoisMatthey,"Laderniirepassion de lean-JacquesRousseau,"RevueNeuchateloise,No. 100,(Automne,1982),40 p.

Worster,lDonald,Nature'sEconomy; DavidPepper,TheRootsofModernEnvironmentalism; P.R. Hay, 'The ContemporaryEnvironmentMovementas Neo-Romanticism:A Re-Appraisalfrom Review,12:4(Winter,1988),p. 39-59. I agreewith Hay's generalthesis Tasmania,'Environmental that contemporaryenvironmentalismshouldnot be understoodas a manifestationof neoRomanticismbecauseit is essentiallyecocentric)forsome people) and groundedin ecological individualismand intuitionismof the Romantics. science,in contrastto the anthropocentric Nevertheless,Romanticnatureworshiphas contributedto a traditionof valuing naturespiritually and aesthetically,which, throughsuch institutionsas the AudubonSocietyand the SierraClub, providedat least a minorityof receptiveattitudesfor the developmentof the modem EnvironmentalMovementof the 1960sand 1970s. As Hay himselfconcludes(p. 56): 'Thereare elementsof romanticismin the new environmentalmovement,and these are to be found more in ome sectionsof this most diffuseof social movementsthanothers." andtheAmerican Mind,(New Haven: YaleUniversityPress, 1967),p.

RoderickNash, Wilderness g9. and the Poetryof Mountaineering," in Essayson theLiterature of MaryEllenBirkett,'"Rousseau Ed.by ArmandeSinger(Morgantown:WestemVirginiaUniversityPress,1982), Mountaineering, v.1. p. 192.

DavidPepper,7heRootsofModernEnvironmentdism, 9 Ibid.,p. 204-5.

9RobertW. Hoffert,'Te Scarcityof Politics: Ophulsand WesternPoliticalThought," frvironmentalEthics,v. 8 (Spring,1986),p. 5-32.

MarcelSchneider,Jaan-Jacques Rousseauet l'Espoirtcologiste(Paris:EditionsPygrnalion,1978), 13. "tIbid.,p. 23. Also see p. 19 and 71 where SchneiderexplainsthatRousseauused "idealworld" ir "utopia"and was thereforethe originalbearerof utopianalternativesratherthanFourier.

13Ibid.,p. 26.

1 Ibid.,p. 27. is Ibid.,p. 29.

Ibid.,p. 33. Actually,the stateof natureis one of Rousseau'sutopias (or utopianideals).See p.

7t5.

17Ibid.,p. 83.

1 Note the growing concernin the mediafor the need forplanningto preventor slow down the globaleffectsof industrialgrowth: the ozone layer,greenhouseeffect,acid rain,deforestation, ?gllution of oceans,etc.

See Leo Mans,Te Machinein theGarden,(New York. OxfordUniversityPress, 1967)and 7he tot andt Passenger,(New York:OxfordUniversityPress, 1988),especiallyp. 113-227,315-336.

An excellentrecentsummaryof an Americantraditionof tiinkers criticalof modem "progress" Review,90, No. 1, (January, is Leo Marx,"DoesImprovedTechnologyMeanProgress?"Technology 1967). Whereasthesewriters,includingEmersonand Thoreau,generallywrote brieflyaboutthe undesirableeffectsof the developmentof industryand technology,Rousseau,in the first two Discourses,examinedthe natureof cultureand of humannatureitself in orderto grasp the ultimatecausesof the processof culturaldevelopmentwhich he claimedwe have mistakenfor "progress.' The best conciseanalysisof Rousseau'sessentiallyanthropologicalapproachto progressas a problemto be solved is MarioEinaudi,TheEarlyRousseau,(Ithaca:Cornell UniversityPress,1967),especiallyp. 131-137,238-278.Moredetailedanalysesof Rousseau's

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andtheIdeaofProgress(Oxford: complexcritiqueof progressareFrederickCharlesGreen,Rousseau ClarendonPress, 1950)and GilbertLaFreniere,Jlan-Jacques andtheIdeaof Progres Rousseau gissertation. Ann Arbor,Michigan:Univesity MicrofilmsInternationaL 1977).

See,forexample,RogerMasters,ThePoliticalPhilsophyofRousseau(PrincetonUniversityPress, Einaudi,TheEarlyRousseau,and Horowitz,Rousseau, Ei96n, Nature,andHistory.

1 J.B.Bury,TheIdeaofProgress(New York:DoverPublications,1955),p. 2.

22 W. WarrenWagar,ed., 7he IdeaofProgressSincetheRenaissnce(New York JohnWiley& Sons, 9), p. 29-35.

CharlesVan Doren,TheIdeaofProgress(New York:Praeger,1967),p. 6.

24Einaudi, TheEarlyRousseau,p. 6.

10.

26 Ibid.,p.

27 Ibid.,p. 15. p.

222.

28Ibid., 28Gilbe LaFreniere,Jean-Jacques Rousseau andtheIdeaofProgress,and "Rousseau'sFirstDiscourse Arts1. (Fall,1983),p. 7-26. ad the Idea of Progress,"TheWilametteJournaloftheLiberal Einlaudi,TheEarlyRouseu, p. 264.

30 $chneider, Rousseauet l'Espoirtcologist,p. 71. Also see p. 23,58-9.

31 Ibid., 76.Jan-Jacques p.

32 Leo Marx,"DoesImprovedTechnologyMeanProgress?,"p. 71.

33 Ibid.,p. 37.

34 Ibid.,p. 39.

35 LaFreniere,"Rousseau'sFirstDiscourseand the Ideaof Progress,'p. 20-22 36 Concerningthe applicationof this dichotomyspecificaly to environmentalproblems,see GilbertLaFreniere,"Environmentalism and UtopianProgressivism:RelationshipsBetween The 5:1(Winter,1988),p. 14-19.

'WopianVisions and Metanoia,' Trumpeter, JeanJacquesRousseau,TheSocialContract andDiscourses, Ed. andTransl.by G.D.H.Cole (New York:E.P.Duttonand Company,1950),p. 285.

Ibid.,p. 286.

39 Ibid.,p. 290.

40 Ibid.,p. 291.

41 Ibid.,p. 301.

42 Ibid.,p. 306.

43 Ibid.,p. 307.

4Ibid., p. 314.

45 Ibid.,p. 317.

46 Ibid.,p. 327.

Ibid.,p. 18-19.

48Jean-Jacques Rousseau,OeuvresComplhtes.

Editionpubbeesous la directionde Bernard Gagnebinet MarcelRaymond(Paris:Biblioth&*ue de la Pl6iade,Gallimard,1959-1969),V. 4, p.

Ibid.,p. 430-431.

50 Ibid.,p. 18-19.

51 AlfredBiese, TheDevdopment of theFeelingforNaturein theMiddleAgesandModernTimes, tndon: GeorgeRoutledgeand Sons,Ltd.,1905),p. 274-78.

Ibid.,p. 278, and DanielMornet,Frech Thoughtin theEighteenth Century(New York:PrenticeInc., 1929),p. 246. .ll, The Biese, Devdopment oftheFedingforNaturein theMiddleAgesandModernTimes,p. 266.

54 Mornet,French7houghtin theEighteenth Century,(1929,19,69),p. 246.

DanielMomet, LeSentimentde la Natureen France,deJJ. Rousseau a Bernardin deSaint-Pierre fieneve-Paris: SlatkineReprints(1907,1980),p. 187.

Ibid.,p. 2034 57Jean-Jacques Rousseau,Julie,ou LaNouvdleHdose, Ed. andTransl.by JudithH. McDowell JniversityPark:The PennsylvaniaStateUniversityPress,1968),p. 335.

5Mbid.,Intro.,p. 12.

D.G.Charlton,NewImagesoftheNaturalin France(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress, p. 34.

61 Ibid.,p. 37.

62 Ibid.,p. 39.

63 Ibid.,p. 47-48.

ChristopherThacker,TheWildnessPlasecs:TheOriginsofRomanticism, p. 12. Also see p. 12-18.

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64 Ibid.,p. 77. Also see MarjorieHope Nicolson,MountainGloomandMountainGlory:The Dewdopment oftheAetheticsof theInfinite(New York:W.W.Norton& Company,Inc.,1963).

AlthoughNicolsonacknowledgesRousseau'sappreciationof naturealong with ThomasGray, JamesThomson,and WilliamCollins(p. 20),she ignoreshim to focus on the Englishtraditionof tg aestheticof the Sublime. andRomanticism HowardMumfordJones,Revolution (Cambridge:HarvardUniversityPress, 64, p. 236-237.

Pleases:TheOriginsofRomanticism, p. 90-91.

Thacker,TheWildness 67 rving Babbitt,Roussu andRomanticism(New York:The WorldPublishingCompany,1919, 1955),p. 3.

68 BernardRosenthal,CityofNature:Journeysto Naturein theAgeofAmerican Romanticism (Newark:Universityof DelawarePress,1980),p. 52-54.

69 Ibid.,p. 53.

70 CharlotteM. Porter,7he Eagle'sNest: NaturalHistoryandAmericanIdeas,1812-1842(University, Alabama:Universityof AlabamaPress,1986),p. 93-94.

71 Paul M Spurlin,Rousseauin America,1760-1809(University,Alabama:Universityof Alabama Press,1969),p. 55-6,113. tmile was readby JohnAdams,BenjaminFranklin,ThomasJefferson, AaronBurr,and Noah Webster,p. 107.

72 Ibid.,p. 55.

73 Ibid.,p. 33, 74 107.

74 Ibid.,p. 56. A '"bestseller' duringthis period sold more than40,000copies in a decade.

Jeffersn's pastoralismand his ideal of an agrarianrepublicaredescribedby AlanTrachtenbergin andAmericans (New York: '"Progressand the Environment" in Roderick Nash, Ed., Environment Holt, Rinehartand Winston,1972),p. 12-15. AlthoughJeffersonappearsto have read at leastJulie and tmile, it cannotbe proved thathis pastoralvision was partlyderivedfromRousseau,although it seers probablethatRousseauexertedsome influenceupon Jefferson'sthought.

75 Rousseau,Julie,McDowellEd.,p. 2 76 Ibid.,p. 2-3.

77Ibid.,p. 10.

78 RonaldA. Boscoand GlenM. Johnson,Eds., ThejournalsandMiscdlaneous Notebooks ofRalph WaldoEmerson.16V.(Cambridge:TheBelknapPressof HarvardUniversity,1960-1982),V. I, p.

176,V. VI,p. 250.

79 Ibid.,V. mI,p. 355.

80 Ibid.,V. X p. 144.

8IIbid., V. ILp. 308.

82 Ibid.,V. XI,p. 502.

83Mauice Gonnaud,An UneasySolitude:Individual andSocietyin the WorkofRalphWaldoEmerson (Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress,1987),p. 240.

84 Ibid.,p. 193.

85 GayWilsonAllen,WaldoEmerson(New York. The VildngPress, 1981),p. 518. This anecdote was originallycitedin TownsendScudder,7he LonelyWayfaring Man: Emerson andSome Englishmen (New York OxfordUniversityPress,1936),p. 112.

86 MichaelWest, "Thoreauand the LanguageTheoriesof the FrenchEnlightenment," Journalof EnglishLiterary History,51 (Winter,1984),p. 747-770.

87 Althou thereis not reasonto believe thatMuirreadRousseau,at least one recent environmentalwriterhas thoughtof themin the same terms. PeterWild, in Pioneer Conservationists ofAmerica(Missoula:MountainPressPublishingCompany,1979),p. 101,states, while writingof Aldo Leopold'sattemptto intellectuallyreconcilethe diversityof the earthwith its 'indivisibility:' The shift involved more thana scientist'sappreciationof nature'scomplexity. On an everydaybasisit meant thatman should becomea servantof the earth,ratherthanits manipulator.Thecorollaryon the philosophicallevel was thatby living in harmony with the environmentman could restoreharmonywith himself. Certainlythis was no new insight,when people such as Rousseauand Muirare takeninto account....

88 PeterQuennell, Romantic England(New YorklcMacmillanCompany,1970),p. 66.

89 Ibid.,p. 171.

90 Ibid. The "mysteriousstateof being' to which Quennellreferswas the sense of peacefulness and self-sufficiencywhich Rousseauderivedfromhis solitaryexperienceof nature,in which botanizingor driftingaimlesslyin a smallboat providedthe basis for his reveryor meditation.

His driftingor floatingexperienceis describedin both the twelfthbookof the Confesionsand the

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V 1 p. 642-43 and 1046-1047, solitair OeuvresCompUtes, fifh wako the Riveriesdu prolmeneur respectively. An excelent Wansat'onof the Reverieswith an extensiveinterpretiveessay is JeanJacquesRousseau,TheReveriesofe Soitary WalkerCharlesE ButterworthEd. New York Harperand Row, Publishs, 1979). Paul A. Cantor The Meaphysis of Botany,is also an cellent analysisof the Rvris.

91 GeorgeMLean Harper WilliamWordswortkHis 'ft WorksandInfluenceNew Yet Charles ibnes Sons 1923),p. 127-1.

92 Ibid.,p. 47.

93 HerbertRead, Wordswrth(New York. Jonatn Cape andHaison Snit, 1931),p. 86.

94 Harper,WilliamWordsworth, p.92.

95 Ibid.

96Ibid. p. 1.

97 Ibd p. 382, regarding rersons visit. Muir's it to Wordsworth'sgraveis descibed in Lnnie MarshWele, Son f theWildernes:Thelfe JohnMur (New York AlfredKnopf 1946) p.

263-264. Accordingto We the autiors thatMui loved best inctuded: "..Carlyle,Scot Burns, Sheey Wordswet, Coleidg Nansen,CharlesLamb Emerson,andThoeau. " p.256.

98 LomeSmith "'Wakgi ftmingld nteAmer Re-ViewingThoau's Rman'ti' NNew n landQuarterly58 (Jue, 985),p. 221-24Zp.225.

99LaraineRitaFergensen,WordswrthandThoreau.A StudyoftheReationshipBetwee Manand Arb r,Mian: Univ i' Mifs, Nature,(Dissertation.

1971),P.3.

100TIid,, p. 2.

101Ibid.,p2-6 9,passim.

102CarolynMerchant al Revolutions: Nature,GenderandSciencein NewEngland(Chapel E, Hill e Universy of NorthCarohnaPr 1989),p. 251. 'ginally 't m gart W. Ross'ter,WomenScientistsin America 't re: TheJohn HopkinsUniver'ty Press,19), p. 3.

Rositer states at Reo au's Itters on Botanywent ugh eight Eng'sh 'ons between1785 and 1815.

103ConcerningByronad Gete e enote 1. o, regardi'g Rousseau'ssrong inuence anuelKantand Johan Wolfgangvan Goethe,See st Cassirer Rousseau, Kantand upn Goethe(New York Harperand Row, blishers, 945,1963)and CarlHamer Jr. Goetheand Roussau Lexington:The UniveT'ty Press Kentcky, 1973).

L.Jones,ed. (Oxford: PerryB she Shelley TheLettersf Pery ByssheSheley, rei At the ClarendonPress, 1964)pro'd cear evidence of his venera'in of Rosseau. For ape, whle 'isitingthe stes of Rou aus Juliein Switzerld in 1816he describ em at lengt incud'ng the folowing ssage (V. 1, p. 4 I readJulieall day' an overfilwing as it now ims,surroundedby e enes whi it of sublimestgeniu and morethanhumansensibihty. has so wondelly p1 M&ilerie,the Castleof Chillon,Clarens, e mountainsof Ls Valaisand avoy, pr t to the' aginat'onas monuents of things at were oncef nmselves 'ar,and 'ngs thatwere once dear tot. They were at ind by one nd, but a 'd on the recordstat arec edreaht. ybrght as to cast a shade of faeh p e Severalpae later,Sheley wrote, 'Rseau is indeed in my 'id the great mtn the world has produc sin Milton (p. 494). ' 104 hur 0. Lvejoy one of ouseas contributionsto trsformm in ys inthe Ideas(We CT: Grnwood Pr Histy 19 ,1978). IMonboddo andRousseau," 1933,p. 61, he assers thatMonboddo'..exend e identity f speciesof Roueseatusdoctne manand the impanze into the hypthesis of e cornon d ent of anthpids and suggestedby' pication a gener law or organicevolution."

The majorostade in the path f understand'ng Rosseau as a tansformist is the in hs biologicalwni gand hs contrad'on between e di c,pro'denal perspe anbiolgical and cltral evoluion in t Sec Discoe. Horowitz,in terprtaionefh Russeau NatureandHistor provides a de'ed elanation of the reans for thi' contra'iton, especialy in p. 50-6 DemonstratingthatRousseauhad beeninfluencedby the tansfornist thout of Mauper'us, B on, and Didert, Horowitzconcudes: in the sytam of t Ratousseau'sd' allowed of a largeamout of transformation hving beings. Althoughas a logicaldevice he maynot have 'pensed with the argument em design, he took suifient pains to iude't fror e ream of na htory where no q eion can b decided on a grounds and whereepin m ihs and 'scoveriesmint remain nhekd and unencumber by theologic

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considerations....Buffonwas Rousseau'schief authorityin mattersof naturalhistory and is referredto oftenby him, espeally in the notes to the SecondDiscourse.

OtherRousseauscholarswho have drawnsimilarconclusionsincludeRamonM. An Exposition andInterpretation PoliticalPhldosophy: (Athens: The Universityof Lemos,Rousseau's of theDiscourse GeorgiaPress,1977),MarcF. Plattner,Roussau'sStateofNature:An Interpretation onInequality (DeKalb:NorthemIllinoisUniversityPress,1979)and RogerMasters(see endnote3).

105Worster,Nature'sEconomy, p. 58.

106ChristopherManes,GreenRagc Radic-al andtheUnmaking Environmentalism ofCivilization (Boston:Little,Brownand Company,1990),writes "...thinkersin the traditionof Rousseauand Thoreauhave long suggestedthatcivilizationis a fake,a vast pyramidschemein which privileged groupsuse such conceptsas "progress"to controlnatureand humannaturefor theirown benefit."(p. 42) +Unlessotherwiseindicated,translationsfromthe Frencharemy own.

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