Jean-Jacques and the utility of plants for human beings
Rousseau
and the rural ideal
R
ousseau was a child of the city, and had
are tempered by hard work and whose phys-
little experience of country life until
ical strength is their best defense against
his time with “Maman” (M
de Warens);
enemies. Rousseau joined in praising Jacob
in her country house, Les Charmettes (near
Gujer (“Kleinjogg”), the frugal farmer from
Chambéry), Rousseau gained experience in
Zurich immortalized in D Johann Caspar
cultivating the soil, tending orchards, keeping
Hirzel’s best-seller, Le Socrate rustique (first
bees and doing many of the tasks of the
published in German, 1761).
me
r
typical farmer. He believed that agriculture
is the way of life of free men, whose morals
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
or the Man of Nature
Engraving by A. Legrand,
ca. 1790
Jacquemart-André Museum,
Fontaine-Chaalis
© The Art Archive
Gianni Dagli Ortii
“ I had another little family
at the end of the garden:
it was some bees. I hardly ever failed to
pay them a visit... I was very interested
Home of J. J. Rousseau
at Les Charmettes
in their work, I was definitely amused
© akg-images
to see them return from plundering,
their little thighs sometimes so burdened that they had trouble walking.
In the first days, curiosity made me
1712 J. J. Rousseau,
citizen of Geneva, 1778
Lithograph by H. van Muyden, 1912
© BGE - Geneva Library,
Geneva Iconographic Collection
indiscreet, and they stung me two or
three times; but afterwards we became
so well acquainted that however close
I came they let me do it, and however
full the hives might be, ready to swarm,
I was sometimes surrounded by them,
I had them on my hands, on my face,
without any ever stinging me.”
Christopher Kelly (trans.), “ The Confessions”
in The collected writings of Rousseau, vol. 5
[Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1995], p. 201
Jean-Jacques and the utility of plants for human beings
Botany as medicine
for the soul
F
me
rom his time with “Maman” (M
body (as was popular at the time), he saw
de Warens), Rousseau deplored the
botanical study as a purgative for his soul.
medicinal use of plants, and the destructive
By focusing his mind on plants, Rousseau
means used to make them into medicines.
separated his thoughts from human miseries,
Such methods destroy the beauty of plants
thereby calming his emotions; this practice
that displays divine beneficence. Rather
harks back to the tranquility sought by Stoic
than exploiting plant properties to purge his
philosophers in Antiquity.
Title page of “ Materia medica” of Carl von Linné, 1749
© Conservatory and Botanical Gardens of Geneva
“If the study of plants purges my soul
“I surely owe my life to plants... I owe them
that is enough for me, I do not desire
the pleasant enjoyment of some respite in
any other pharmacy.”
the midst of the bitterness with which my life
Alexandra Cook (trans.), “Botanical writings” in The collected writings of Rousseau, vol. 8
is inundated: as long as I herborize, I am not
[Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2000], p. 252
unhappy, and I answer you that, if they will permit
me, I will never cease to herborize the rest of my life
from morning until evening.”
Rousseau to Pierre-Alexandre du Peyrou, 19 december 1768
(Alexandra Cook (trans.), “Botanical writings” in The collected writings of Rousseau, vol. 8
[Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2000], p. 197)
Jean-Jacques and the utility of plants for human beings
The “sweet odors ”
of plants
R
ousseau considered the structures
the odours of many plants very appealing,
and forms of plants more important
and considered them helpful in identifying
than secondary qualities such as colour
certain plants, such as the hemlock. Regard-
and odour, much as he considered mel-
ing a famous Swiss medicine of the day, the
ody in music more important than har-
“Falltranck”, “medicinal drink for fall”, he
mony, and an engraving better than a
suggested its odour was more curative than
coloured picture. However, he did find
its other purportedly medicinal qualities.
“The good Swiss plant
herbalists take care to
garnish their Falltranck less for its
alleged wound-healing quality than for
the excellent scent that it gives off.”
Rousseau’s annotations of: Nicolas François et Geneviève de Nangis Regnault, La Botanique mise à la portée de tout le monde (Paris: the author, 1774),
art. 26, annotated book in the Library of the French National Assembly, Paris
(Orange Translations, trans.)
“Fragrant odors, intense colors, the most
elegant shapes seem to vie with each other
for the right of capturing our attention.
To give oneself up to such delicious
sensations, it is necessary only to love
pleasure. And if this effect does not occur
for all those who are struck by these objects,
with some it is due to a lack of natural
sensitivity and with most it is because their
mind, too preoccupied with other ideas, only
furtively gives itself up to the objects which
strike their senses.”
Charles E. Butterworth (trans.), “The Reveries of the solitary walker, seventh walk”
Poison Hemlock - Conium maculatum L. (Apiaceae)
Prof. Dr Otto Wilhelm Thomé / Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz, 1885, Gera, Germany
in The collected writings of Rousseau, vol. 8
[Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2000], p. 59