BOOK Ⅰ

I MEAN to inquire if, in the civil order, there can be any sure and legitimate rule of administration, men being taken as they are and laws as they might be. In this inquiry I shall endeavour always to unite what right sanctions with what is prescribed by interest, in order that justice and utility may in no case be divided.

I enter upon my task without proving the importance of the subject. I shall be asked if I am a prince or a legislator, to write on politics. I answer that I am neither, and that is why I do so. If I were a prince or a legislator, I should not waste time in saying what wants doing; I should do it, or hold my peace.

As I was born a citizen卢梭1712年生于日内瓦,1728年放弃加尔文教皈依天主教后,失去日内瓦公民资格。1754年又荣归日内瓦,重新皈依新教,参加了日内瓦共和国全体公民大会。1762年本书出版后遭日内瓦当局焚禁,卢梭本人遭日内瓦当局逮捕。1763年,卢梭致信日内瓦首席执政官,放弃了其公民身份。 of a free State, and a member of the Sovereign, I feel that, however feeble the influence my voice can have on public affairs, the right of voting on them makes it my duty to study them: and I am happy, when I reflect upon governments, to find my inquiries always furnish me with new reasons for loving that of my own country.