Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778 . The Social Contract : or Principles of Political Right
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The Social Contract or Principles of Political Right

by

Jean Jacques Rousseau
Translated from the French
with an introduction by

G.D.H. Cole

New York
E.P. Dutton and Company
Foederis æquas
Dicamus leges. (Virgil, Æneid XI)


FOREWARD

    This little treatise is part of a longer work which I began years ago without realising my limitations, and long since abandoned. Of the various fragments that might have been extracted from what I wrote, this is the most considerable, and, I think, the least unworthy of being offered to the public. The rest no longer exists.