and Writing the Purport of it was, we see, expressed by a Composition of
Action and
Picture”
[p. 87]. Warburton recalls Herodotus’s interpretation (I.IV) : “Darius believed that the
Scythians wanted to tell him through this enigma that they presented him earth and water, and
submitted to him. The mouse signified the earth to those in the know; the toad signified water;
the bird could be compared to the horse; and by the arrows was meant that they were
denuding themselves of their power. But Gobrias, one of those who destroyed the Magi, gave
another interpretation: ‘If instead of fleeing like birds, you hide yourself in the earth or water,
like mice and toads, you will perish by these arrows.’ For Herodotus, in place of one barb,
counts five arrows and says nothing of the plough, etc. . . . I believed I would please the
reader by adding this commentary of Herodotus to Pherecydes’ text” (pp. 63—65) [my edition
of
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The Divine Legation of Moses lacked the footnote cited by Derrida, the translation above is
mine].
54.Cf.
Speech and Phenomena [op. cit.].
55.We shall content ourselves with referring to the notes and bibliographies given by the
makers of the Pléiade edition of the Reveries (pp. 1045 f.).
56.Discourse: “The invention of the other arts must therefore have been necessary to compel
mankind to apply themselves to agriculture” (p. 173) [pp. 200—01]. Essay: “The first men
were hunters or shepherds, and not tillers of the soil; herdsmen, not men of the fields. Before
the ownership of it was divided, no one thought to cultivate land. Agriculture is an art that
requires tools” (Chapter IX) [p. 33].
57.An Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge (II :I. “Of the Origin and Progress of
Language.” A. Colin edition, p. 111 [pp. 169—70] ) .
58.Although it further sharpens the break between the state of pure Nature and the state of
budding society, the Discourse multiplies quite a few allusions to “the inconceivable pains
and the infinite space of time that the first invention of languages must have cost” (p. 146) [p.
174], to “the rapidity of time,” to the “almost insensible progress of things in their
beginnings”; “for the slower the events were in their succession, the more rapidly may they be
described” (p. 167) [p. 195]. A remark that Voltaire found “ridiculous.” See editor’s note in
the Pléiade edition.
59.Rousseau is more specific in a note: “It is not possible to determine the precise degree of
man’s natural indolence. It is said that he lives only to sleep, to vegetate, to rest. Only with
difficulty can he resolve to bestir himself enough to avoid dying of starvation. Nothing
sustains the love of so many savages for their mode of life as does this delicious indolence.
The feelings that make man restless, foresighted, and active arise only in society. To do
nothing is the primary and the strongest passion of man after that of self-preservation. If one
looks carefully, he will see that, just as among our-selves, it is in order to achieve repose that
everyone works. It is laziness that even makes us hard-working” [pp. 38-39, n. 4].
60. Derathé has qualified it thus (Rousseau et la science . . . , p. 18o).
61.Cf. Starobinksi, La transparence et l’obstacle, pp. 190—91.
62.If the force of dispersion can appear before and after the catastrophe, if the catastrophe
reunites men at the time of its appearance but disperses them anew by its persistence, the
coherence of the theory of need, under its apparent contradictions, is explained. Before the
catastrophe, need draws men apart; during the catastrophe, it brings them together. “The earth
nourishes men; but when their initial needs have dispersed them, other needs arise which
reunite them, and it is only then that they speak, and that they have any incentive to speak. In
order to avoid contradicting myself, I must be allowed time to explain myself” [Essay, p. 39].
63.Essays: “The cycles of the seasons are another more general and permanent cause that is
bound to produce the same effect in the climates subject to this variety” [p. 40]. Fragment on
climates: “A different diversity that multiplies and combines the preceding is that of the
seasons. Their succession, containing several climates alternately within a single one,
accustoms men who live there to their diverse impressions, and renders them capable of
traveling and living in all countries of which the temperature is felt in theirs” (p. 531) .
64.This description of the festival should be compared to that in the Letter to d’Alembert and,
more specifically as far as time is concerned, to that in Emile. “We will be our own servants in
order to be our own masters. Time will fly unheeded” [p. 318]. A very brief passage will lead
us to the understanding that these two notations are not juxtaposed: the possibility of the
“comparison,” in the sense given to that concept by Rousseau, is the common root of temporal
difference (which permits the measurement of time and throws us outside of the present) and
of the difference or lack of symmetry between master and man.
65.Cf. Raymond, « Introduction, » Les Rêveries [du promeneur solitaire (Geneva, 1967), pp. 7
—52] and the chapter that Starobinski devotes to « La transparence du cristal » in La
transparence et l’obstacle, p. 317. Rousseau is never cited in [Gaston] Bachelard’s
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L’eau et les rêves [Water and Dreams, tr. Edith Rogers Farrell, dissertation, University of
Iowa, 1965].
66. As long as incest is permitted, there is no incest, to be sure, but there is also no amorous
passion. Sexual relationships limit themselves to the reproductive needs; or they do not exist
at all: this is the situation of the child as given in Emile. But would Rousseau say the same
thing about the child’s relationship with his mother as he says here about his relationship with
his sister? It is true that the mother is quite absent from Emile: “The child brought up in
accordance with his age is alone. He knows no attach-ment but that of habit, he loves his