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PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

In preparing this enlarged edition of the Selections from J.-J. Rousseau I am availing myself of suggestions made by teachers who have used the first. The idea of giving complete works met with general approval. In the nature of things these could only be works of briefer compass. I have therefore retained in extenso the four complete selections of the first edition. To meet the request that all of Rousseau's important works be represented, selections have also been made from the remaining masterpieces. In arranging these I have attempted to choose such extracts as would, with the introductions to each, explain themselves, the purpose being to give in as brief a space as possible a general conspectus of Rousseau's contribution to the various fields of philosophy, politics and especially literature.

Students of Rousseau are still impatiently awaiting a definitive text. Since my first edition an excellent text of The Political Writings of Rousseau (1915) has been provided by Professor C. E. Vaughan. I have followed this for the selections from the Discours sur l'Inégalité and the Contrat Social. For the remaining selections I have used the Musset-Pathay

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(1823-6) edition making a few changes which older or better authority seemed to warrant. In preparing this second edition I have been greatly aided in certain passages, especially of La Nouvelle Héloïse, by the J.-J. Rousseau, Morceaux Choisis, 3° édition, of that most learned of our Rousseau scholars, M. D. Mornet, to whom I wish to acknowledge particular indebtedness. For assistance in preparing this volume for the press my thanks are due to my colleague Professor Frank L. Critchlow.

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