[141] _Ib._, viii. 145-151. [142] _Rêveries_, ix. 313. The same reason is given, _Conf._, ix. 252; also in Letter to Madame B., January 17, 1770 (_Corr._, vi. 117). [143] _Corr._, vi. 152, 153. Feb. 27, 1770. [144] Letter to Madame de Francueil, April 20, 1751. _Corr._, i. 151. [145] _Corr._, i. 151-155 [146] August 10, 1761. _Corr._, ii. 220. The Maréchale de Luxembourg's note on the subject, to which this is a reply, is given in _Rousseau, ses Amis et ses Ennemis_, i. 444. [147] _Conf._, x. 249. See above, p. 106, _n._ [148] To Lalliaud, Aug 31, 1768. _Corr._, v. 324. See also D'Escherny, quoted in Musset-Pathay, i. 169, 170. [149] To Du Peyrou, Sept. 26, 1768. _Corr._, v. 360. [150] To Mdlle. Le Vasseur, July 25, 1768. _Corr._, v. 116-119. CHAPTER V. THE DISCOURSES. The busy establishment of local academies in the provincial centres of France only preceded the outbreak of the revolution by ten or a dozen years; but one or two of the provincial cities, such as Bordeaux, Rouen, Dijon, had possessed academies in imitation of the greater body of Paris for a much longer time. Their activity covered a very varied ground, from the mere commonplaces of literature to the most practical details of material production. If they now and then relapsed into inquiries about the laws of Crete, they more often discussed positive and scientific theses, and rather resembled our chambers of agriculture than bodies of more learned pretension. The academy of Dijon was one of the earliest of these excellent institutions, and on the whole the list of its theses shows it to have been among the most sensible in respect of the subjects which it found worth thinking about. Its members, however, could not entirely resist the intellectual atmosphere of the time. In 1742 they invited discussion of the point, whether the natural law can conduct society to perfection without the aid of political laws.[151] In 1749 they proposed this question as a theme for their prize essay: _Has the restoration of the sciences contributed to purify or to corrupt manners?_ Rousseau was one of fourteen competitors, and in 1750 his discussion of the academic theme received the prize.[152] This was his first entry on the field of literature and speculation. Three years afterwards the same academy propounded another question: _What is the origin of inequality among men, and is it authorised by the natural law?_ Rousseau again competed, and though his essay neither gained the prize, nor created as lively an agitation as its predecessor had done, yet we may justly regard the second as a more powerful supplement to the first.