The town of Lyon
© Collection Jean-Jacques Monney, Geneva
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who believed a vocation of pedagog, is quickly disillusioned. Force is to him to note that “knowledge” does not replace, in this field, the” talent “, or at least the experiment, of which it is deprived. The children of Mr. de Mably are young (five and six years) and carry out the hard life to him. It does not save its sorrow but, badly directed, its efforts do not lead to nothing: ” All that I made was precisely what one did not have to do. “From this experiment, it will draw two short theoretical tests: a Report presented to Mr. de Mably on the education of Mr. his son and a Project for the education of Mr. de Sainte-Marie (1740), which testifies to its reflections on the methods and the goal of education. Discouraged, it will give its resignation in May 1741,” after one year of test “.
All the time its stay in Lyon does not do without however to fight with its pupils. Its employment at large notable (Mr. de Mably is general provost of the constabulary) introduces it into the best company of the city and allows him to bind with various personalities, friends of the letters and arts: the intendant Bertrand-Rene Pallu, who presents it to the duke of Richelieu in 1741, the surgeon Gabriel Parisot, to whom it will dedicate in 1742 an Epistle, the man of letters Charles Bordes, which it will find on multiple occasions on his way, the musician Jacques David or Camille Perrichon, former mayor of the city. These frequentations supplement the education started in Charmettes and contribute to organize “Allobroge”. It becomes acquainted moreover with the two brothers of its employer, the abbots of Condillac and Mably, with which it will remain dependant.
Despite everything, at the end of one year, it does not have of cease to go back near Madam de Warens to Charmettes to Chambéry, hoping, through good will, to resurrect a happiness which is not any more. He realizes quickly that this attempt is dedicated to the failure and cannot, again, that to be locked up with his books. He seeks there distractions, but also “remedies against the evils” which he provides, namely the nearest ruin of its protective. While reconsidering with the difficulties which it had to learn the music, the idea comes to him from a new marking system, whose principle consists in replacing the notes by figures: ” As of this moment I believed my made fortune “. It any more but does not remain to him to go to Paris to present its project to the Academy of Science.
Quotation
(listen to this text while clicking on the picto above)
“In fifteen days, my resolution was taken and carried out. Lastly, full with the splendid ideas which had inspired it to me, and always the same one in all the times, I left Savoy with my system of music, as formerly I had left Turin with my fountain of Heron.”
(Confessions, l.VI, O C I, p.272)