"The sovereign power represents the head; the laws and customs are the brain, the source of the nerves and seat of the understanding, will and senses, of which the Judges and Magistrates are the organs: commerce, industry, and agriculture are the mouth and stomach which prepare the common subsistence; the public income is the blood, which a prudent economy, in performing the functions of the heart, causes to distribute through the whole body nutriment and life: the citizens are the body and the members, which make the machine live, move and work."
— Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712-1778)
Date
1755
Metaphor
"The sovereign power represents the head; the laws and customs are the brain, the source of the nerves and seat of the understanding, will and senses, of which the Judges and Magistrates are the organs: commerce, industry, and agriculture are the mouth and stomach which prepare the common subsistence; the public income is the blood, which a prudent economy, in performing the functions of the heart, causes to distribute through the whole body nutriment and life: the citizens are the body and the members, which make the machine live, move and work."
Metaphor in Context
The body politic, taken individually, may be considered as an organised, living body, resembling that of man. The sovereign power represents the head; the laws and customs are the brain, the source of the nerves and seat of the understanding, will and senses, of which the Judges and Magistrates are the organs: commerce, industry, and agriculture are the mouth and stomach which prepare the common subsistence; the public income is the blood, which a prudent economy, in performing the functions of the heart, causes to distribute through the whole body nutriment and life: the citizens are the body and the members, which make the machine live, move and work; and no part of this machine can be damaged without the painful impression being at once conveyed to the brain, if the animal is in a state of health.
Provenance
Kelly, G. A. "Reading Mortal Man, Immortal Society?: Political Metaphors in Eighteenth-Century France." Political Theory. Vol. 14, No. 1 (Feb., 1986): 17. <Link to JSTOR>
Citation
From the Encyclopédie (1751-1772), <Link to ARTFL>
Text from Rousseau, J. J. The Social Contract and Discourses, trans. G. D. H. Cole (New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1950). <Link to UVa Etext Center>
Text from Rousseau, J. J. The Social Contract and Discourses, trans. G. D. H. Cole (New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1950). <Link to UVa Etext Center>
Date of Entry
01/10/2010
