rance and Switzerland, so in 1765 Rousseau set out for Berlin, deciding on the way to go to England instead. He met David Hume, but by this time Rousseau was suffering from persecution mania and believed that Hume was part of a plot against him. He returned to France in spite of the fact that he was subject to arrest, but as it happens he was left alone. He died in 1778.
Rousseau's life and his philosophy were often contradictory. He expressed ideas on morals, sociology, politics, religion, and literature, though he often behave quite differently from the philosophy he espoused:
Literature and painting, he asserted, were curses to mankind, yet he became a prolific author. . . Living with a mistress and having had a previous score of three women, he sang the praises of chaste conjugal love. Devoted to women, he wrote of them as an anti-feminist. Placing his children in a foundling hospital instead of bringing them up, he provided a blueprint for educational policy. Author of many plays, he thundered ag
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