all that we can do for his well-being is to assign to every child his own place, to establish it

firmly, and to direct human passions according to man's constitution.1340

Education cannot be but natural; education is the development of the potential which the Author

of creation has placed within man, not yet soiled by society and by education, which is its

deputy. Look at nature and follow the path it marks out for you. This is nature's rule.1341

The educator is not called to direct those faculties which have a finality and resources of their

own but to preserve them, protect them so that they may not be blocked or swayed by negative

interferences but rather find positive support from the great 'masters', namely from the natural

world of the countryside, away from the city, and from those who live and work there: this is

'nature's education' and 'the education of things'.1342 “Religiosity itself is professed and lived by

being in contact with nature, interpreted by reason, and in spontaneous harmony with the

Creator”1343

The action of the educator for the first period of a child's life is defined as “negative education”, and, after the child's' second birth’ (14/15 years of age) “indirect positive education”: “We are born twice, so to speak: the first time, we are born to exist, the second time we are born to live; the first birth is for the species, the second for the sex.”1344 “Zealous teachers, may you be simple, discrete, reserved: never be in a hurry to act, except to prevent others from acting”1345 “Young instructors, I am preaching to you on a different art, that of teaching without precepts, and that of doing everything without doing anything at all. This art, I agree, does not belong to your age... You will never be able to create wise men if you do not first of all make little rascals out of them”.1346

Even though Rousseau's attention, in this book, is focused on the 'Tutor', the Governeur, he

'holds forcefully' that, if inspired by the principles expressed, first-childhood educators are the

parents, first of all the mother, soon enough actively helped by the father.

To the mother, Rousseau directs the rest of this appeal:

Tender and farsighted mother, you who have been able to get off the main thoroughfare and

protect the nascent tiny tree from the clash of human opinions! Cultivate and sprinkle that

little plant before it dies; its fruits, one day, will be your delight; build a fence around your

child's soul in good time: another may mark out the perimeter, but only you should build

the barrier, preventing him from being overcome by 'human opinions', by the existing

artificial and conforming society so that he may see with his own eyes and hear with his

own heart”.1347

Émile was taken by Catholics and Reformers as the expression of rationalistic naturalism that led a fundamental attack against the specific nature of Christianity founded on the divine adoption of man, the reality of original sin, the reality of Revelation and Grace.1348 Rousseau's thinking had Calvinistic

1340 G. Rousseau,Emilio, lib. II, pp. 69-70.

1341 G. Rousseau,Emilio, lib. I, p. 23.

1342 G. Rousseau,Emilio, lib. I, pp. 9-10.

1343 G. Rousseau, Emilio, lib. Cf. G.G. Rousseau, Emilio, pp. 346-418, Professione del vicario savoiardo. The second

part will come under particular fierce debate (pp. 389-418), when after exposing his natural theistic religion the vicar

answers the listener's request: “speak to me of revelation, the scriptures, obscure dogmas that I have been getting wrong

since my childhood without being either to understand them nor believe in them and not knowing how to either accept

or reject them”. (p. 389).

1344 G. Rousseau,Emilio, lib. IV, p. 265.

1345 G. Rousseau,Emilio, lib. II, p. 94.

1346 G. Rousseau,Emilio, lib. II, p. 130.

1347 G. Rousseau,Emilio, lib. I, I, p. 8. Rousseau has a lengthy note to justify the primacy of education by the mother 1348 Jacques Maritain, in his Trois réformateurs. Luther, Descartes, Rousseau (Paris, Plon-Nourrit 1925) speaks of

Jean-Jacques ou le saint de la nature (pp. 131-237).