"The
Bible) is in my opinion the most sublime of all books; when all others
will bore me, I will always go back to it with new pleasure; and when all
human consolations will be lacking, never have I vainly turned to its
own."
(Burgelin, 1973, 429)
"I will never know Him
by His being. I can only, therefore, study Him by His attributes."
(Burgelin,
407)
"The blackboard of
nature offers me harmony and proportion, that of human beings offers me
confusion and disorder. "Harmony reigns among the elements while men are in
chaos! Animals are happy, their king only is miserable!"
(Burgelin,
414)
"Worship the Eternal
Being, my worthy and wise friend, and by so doing in one breath you will
destroy the ghosts of reason, that are nothing but a vain manifestation that
runs as a shadow before the immutable truth. Nothing exists but by Him who
is... it is His unchangeable substance that is the true model of perfections
of which we have an image within ourselves.
(Burgelin,
419)
(From a letter to Voltaire)
"..forgive me, great
man my fervor which is perhaps indiscreet,... but the question at issue is
the cause of Providence, which only is my solace... I have suffered too
much in my life not to look forward to another. Not all the subtleties of
metaphysics can shake for one moment my belief in a beneficent Providence.
I sense the existence of Providence, I believe in it, I insist on it, I
hope for it, I shall defend it to my last breath..."
(Guehemo, 351)
____________________
Burgelin,
P. La Philosophie De L'
Existance De Jean Jacques
Rousseau. Librarie Philosophique J. Vrin, 1973.
Guehermo, J. Jean Jacques
Rousseau. New York: Columbia U. Press, 1966.