Rousseau-isms

And he found himself entertaining without horror a hundred heresies that would have seemed scandalous to his youth. An almost passionate pantheism replaced the God of the Bible. There was a God, yes, and life would be meaningless and unbearable without him; but he was not the external, vengeful deity conceived by cruel and fearful men, he was the soul of Nature, and nature was, fundamentally, beautiful, and human nature was basically good.

On this, and Pascal, Rousseau would build his philosophy.

p 14

Man is by nature good, and that only our institutions have made him bad. p 19

The Romantic Movement in France and Germany.

The callous extravagance of the rich financed by exactions from the poor. p 19

Diderot bade him attack the civilization of their time with all possible force. 19