"The public force therefore needs an agent of its own to bind it together and set it to work under the direction of the general will, to serve as a means of communication between the State and the Sovereign, and to do for the collective person more or less what the union of soul and body does for man."
— Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712-1778)
Place of Publication
Amsterdam
Publisher
Marc Michel Rey
Date
1762
Metaphor
"The public force therefore needs an agent of its own to bind it together and set it to work under the direction of the general will, to serve as a means of communication between the State and the Sovereign, and to do for the collective person more or less what the union of soul and body does for man."
Metaphor in Context
The public force therefore needs an agent of its own to bind it together and set it to work under the direction of the general will, to serve as a means of communication between the State and the Sovereign, and to do for the collective person more or less what the union of soul and body does for man. Here we have what is, in the State, the basis of government, often wrongly confused with the Sovereign, whose minister it is.
(III.i)
Il faut donc à la force publique un agent propre qui la réunisse & la mette en œuvre selon les directions de la volonté générale, qui serve à la communication de l’Etat & du Souverain, qui fasse en quelque sorte dans la personne publique ce que fait dans l’homme l’union de l’ame & du corps. Voilà quelle est dans l’Etat la raison du Gouvernement, confondu mal-à-propos avec le Souverain, dont il n’est que le ministre.
Il faut donc à la force publique un agent propre qui la réunisse & la mette en œuvre selon les directions de la volonté générale, qui serve à la communication de l’Etat & du Souverain, qui fasse en quelque sorte dans la personne publique ce que fait dans l’homme l’union de l’ame & du corps. Voilà quelle est dans l’Etat la raison du Gouvernement, confondu mal-à-propos avec le Souverain, dont il n’est que le ministre.
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Published in 1762. At least 8 entries in ESTC (1764, 1791, 1782, 1795).
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract: or Principles of Political Right. Trans. G. D. H. Cole. No. 660 of Everyman's Library. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1913. <Link to UVa Etext Center>
French text: Du contrat social, ou principes du droit politique, in Collection complète des œuvres, 17 vols (Genève, 1780–1788). <Rousseau Online>
See also A Treatise on the Social Compact; or The Principles of Politic Law (London: Printed for T. Becket, 1764). <Link to Google Books>
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract: or Principles of Political Right. Trans. G. D. H. Cole. No. 660 of Everyman's Library. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1913. <Link to UVa Etext Center>
French text: Du contrat social, ou principes du droit politique, in Collection complète des œuvres, 17 vols (Genève, 1780–1788). <Rousseau Online>
See also A Treatise on the Social Compact; or The Principles of Politic Law (London: Printed for T. Becket, 1764). <Link to Google Books>
Date of Entry
02/04/2014
