Alexandre Deleyre

This chapter highlights Jean-Jacques Rousseau's letter to Alexandre Deleyre on December 20, 1764. In this letter, Rousseau talks about Mr. Boswell, a Scottish gentleman who is going to make his tour of Italy. In his youth, Mr. Boswell's head “was muzzy with harsh Calvinist theology, and from it he still has an uneasy soul and dark ideas.” Rousseau advised Mr. Boswell to dedicate his trip to Italy to the study of the fine arts. He warns that if Deleyre philosophizes with Mr. Boswell, Deleyre should restrain from presenting moral objects except through what is consoling and tender. Rousseau then expresses his disagreement with Deleyre's opinion about “the impossibility of giving a good founding to the Corsicans.”