"Jean-Jacques Rousseau...?"

Lawrence was stunned for a moment, and a look of surprise could not help but appear on his face, and then he subconsciously looked at the man in prison who was nearly sixty years old and in good spirits, and at the same time recalled quickly in his mind:

"Rousseau... In 1770... There was no mistake, it was exactly the time he had just returned to Paris from England. ”

Rousseau's eyes rolled slightly, fixed on Lawrence's face.

His dark eyes were like the Pacific Ocean, calm and spacious, containing endless power.

"Who is this gentleman...?"

Rousseau asked, a little curiously, and he could tell that Lawrence was not a member of the High Court of Paris, but Judge Jackie had a flattering attitude towards the young man.

"Enough, prisoner Rousseau, don't talk nonsense, this adult's name is not what you should know."

Judge Jackie said fiercely, and then stepped forward and kicked hard at the iron door of the cell, making a loud clanging sound that echoed through the hallway.

With that, Judge Jackie immediately put on a bright smile as if his face had changed, turned to Lawrence and said:

"Sir Bonaparte, let's go, ignore him, he is just a poor scholar. In the court before, he had been talking about freedom, rights, and so on, but they were reactionary words. ”

However, Lawrence didn't even look at Judge Jackie, walked straight forward, looked at the giant thinker in the cell, and said slowly:

"Man is born free, but he is always in bondage......

Rousseau's face also showed a hint of surprise, and subconsciously added:

"'Those who think they are masters of everything else are slaves more than everything else.'" Yes, sir, the first sentence of the first section of the first chapter of the first chapter of the first volume of the Social Contract. In fact, that's exactly what I do. ”

"Hey! Prisoner Rousseau! ”

Before Lawrence could respond, Judge Jackie on the side rushed up first, although he didn't know what Lawrence was talking to Rousseau, but he still angrily pointed at Rousseau's nose and scolded:

"How dare you mention this forbidden book of yours?! I can't believe you have the audacity to put on your lips these reactionary statements challenging the authority of God and the King in your cell! ”

"Don't worry, Judge Jackie."

Lawrence put his left hand on Judge Jackie's shoulder, glanced at him expressionlessly, and said in a cold voice:

"Actually, I was the one who first put these reactionary statements on my lips, and the words I just said came from what you called the forbidden book."

"I..."

Judge Jackie swallowed palely, and Lawrence's palm that was gently resting on his shoulder was as heavy as a thousand pounds at the moment, which immediately made a layer of cold sweat break out on Judge Jackie's forehead.

Lawrence looked at Judge Jackie, who was extremely nervous, and said:

"You don't mean to say that I'm also challenging the authority of the king and God, right?"

Judge Jackie couldn't wait to slap himself twice.

Any Parisian who cares about politics knows Lawrence's close relationship with the royal family, and if he dares to say that Lawrence challenges the authority of the royal family, he will definitely be regarded as malicious slander by everyone.

And whether it is the royal family or the Lord Bonaparte in front of him, this is an existence that a small assistant judge like Judge Jackie cannot afford to offend.

"I, hahaha, of course I'm not talking about you."

Judge Jackie smiled and said incoherently:

"Of course, a big man like you is different from those ordinary people, you have a strong enough mind not to be corrupted by those evil forbidden books..."

"In that case, it should be fine for me to talk to Monsieur Rousseau, right?" Lawrence then asked.

"It's... Of course, of course, you can do it. Judge Jackie hesitated for a moment, nodded quickly, and then stepped aside with great interest.

Rousseau, who was in prison, couldn't help but widen his eyes at this moment, watching Judge Jackie, who was arrogant in front of him, bow his head and retreat to the side like a humble domestic servant.

Lawrence turned his head and looked Rousseau up and down again in his cell, and he was able to confirm that the man in front of him was the world-famous Enlightenment thinker in history, Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Although the historical Rousseau died eight years later in 1778, his ideas influenced the entire French Revolution and later the American Constitution as the author of The Social Contract.

Every leader of the French Revolution, whether Jacobins or Girondins, Thermidorians or Napoleon, who later became emperor, read Rousseau's The Social Contract.

As a young man, Robespierre personally visited Rousseau in his twilight years and was influenced by him to a considerable extent.

That's why the German poet Heine said:

"Robespierre is but one of Rousseau's hands, a bloody hand that has taken a body out of the womb of the age, but the soul of this body was created by Rousseau."

This is why Russell called "The Social Contract" the bible of leaders during the French Revolution, although Russell's sentence is somewhat derogatory, but it also shows the depth of Rousseau's influence on the French Revolution.

As for Rousseau himself, he, like many unfortunate great men, did not receive much attention during his lifetime, and was not rich in life, and his ideas were only excavated and carried forward after his death.

Lawrence looked at Rousseau's old clothes and sighed slightly.

In his memory, although Rousseau was born in a middle-class family in Geneva, he came to Paris alone when he was young, and gradually became famous in the academic circles of Paris, and had good friendships with encyclopedic scholars such as Voltaire and Diderot.

By 1762, Rousseau's ideological disagreement with Voltaire and the Encyclopaedists led to a boycott of his pedagogical work Emile and eventually the attention of Bishop Beamon, Bishop of Paris.

Bishop Beamon decided that Rousseau's works were banned and banned both The Social Contract and Emile, forcing Rousseau to publish them in the Netherlands.

Worse for Rousseau, the Paris High Court also issued an expulsion order against him, expelling him from French soil.

Rousseau was forced to go into exile, then to Prussia and then to Germany, and finally fled to England with the help of the English philosopher Hume.

Hume was also very benevolent to Rousseau, not only helping Rousseau settle his residence, but also recommending Rousseau to King George III and obtaining him a share of the king's annuity.

However, Rousseau himself did not speak English, and he had no other friends in England, and this loneliness worsened his mental condition, and he even suspected that Hume was trying to harm him.

Hume was also very helpless about this, and mentioned Rousseau in a letter to a friend: "He is obviously crazy. ”

In 1770, the Paris High Court finally revoked Rousseau's expulsion and allowed him to return to Paris, but did not allow him to publish any of his writings. This is why Rousseau's Confessions were not published until four years after his death.

Rousseau immediately left England with his wife and returned to Paris, a land where he had been absent for almost ten years, and made a living copying music scores and composing music for others.

"Have you read my work?" Rousseau looked at the young man in front of him with some surprise and asked.

Since both The Social Contract and Emile were banned in France, both books were unpopular for a long time after their release.

Nor did Rousseau expect to meet a reader of his own in such a place.

"Of course, I can even recite fragments of it. In the process of participating in politics, human beings can attain equal freedom of contract only if each person equally renounces all his natural freedoms and transfers them to the whole collective'. ”

Lawrence replied with a smile, then glanced at Rousseau's cell, frowned, and asked:

"Also, Monsieur Rousseau, I wonder why they keep you in such a place."

Although the conditions in this cell are much better than in other prisons, it is clearly not the place for a great thinker in his sixties.

When Judge Jackie, who was on the side, heard this, he immediately broke out in a cold sweat, and he finally realized that this Lord Bonaparte was actually a loyal reader of the prisoner.

Judge Jackie, who was aware of this, quickly thought about how to use this to curry favor with Lord Bonaparte.

Rousseau shook his head with a wry smile, and did not speak out loud about his grievances, but said slowly:

"The High Court gave me an injunction not to publish any more work, but their definition of work is too broad. I just posted a piece of music and they accused me of violating the ban and brought me here. ”

Lawrence frowned, but he was not surprised, after all, for a conservative and decadent interest group like the High Court, the more advanced it is, the more reactionary it is.

Voltaire was also persecuted by the Paris High Court and squatted in a dungeon for a period of time.

"Hehehe... Lord Bonaparte, Monsieur Rousseau. ”

Judge Jackie, who was on the side, also found the right time to come up, and the address to Rousseau changed from prisoner to sir, and said with a smile:

"I have just recalled the case of Monsieur Rousseau, and it seems that the verdict is indeed biased. Mr. Rousseau, if you would file a review, I would be happy to reopen the case..."

Rousseau was stunned for a moment, then suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, looked at Lawrence with understanding, and said gratefully:

"Thank you so much, Your Excellency, I really don't know how to repay you."

For an old man like Rousseau, who was accustomed to seeing the world, he certainly knew in an instant why Judge Jackie's attitude changed so quickly.

After knowing that he would be released soon, Rousseau's face finally had a smile on his face, and he asked Lawrence excitedly:

"By the way, I don't know your name yet, who are you...?"

Judge Jackie hurriedly spoke first, and said kindly to Rousseau:

"Monsieur Rousseau, you have just returned to Paris, and you don't even know His Excellency Bonaparte. He was the Governor of the Republic of Corsica, First Chamberlain to the Dauphin of France and the Crown Collector. ”

"Governor of Corsica?"

When Rousseau heard this name, he was suddenly stunned for a moment, and asked repeatedly:

"Isn't the Governor of Corsica Mr. Paulie? I had a correspondence with him a few months ago. ”

"Correspondence...?"

Lawrence was also stunned for a moment, and then remembered that Rousseau and Corsica really had a relationship.

As early as 1755, when Pauli led the Corsicans in a rebellion against Genoese rule and declared Corsica independent, Rousseau was excited about Corsican's independence and wrote in The Social Contract:

"There is also a country in Europe that is open to legislators. This is Corsica. The bravery and steadfastness shown by these brave people to regain and defend their freedom is well worth the help of wise men who are willing to teach them how to defend it. I had a hunch that one day this small island would shock Europe. ”

In this passage, the "wise men who are willing to teach them how to defend their freedom" to which Rousseau refers are in fact himself, which can be regarded as a kind of self-recommendation.

Fortunately, on August 31, 1764, Matteo Butafko, the then ambassador of Corsica to France, read this text, and he wrote a letter to Rousseau, asking Rousseau to draft a constitution for Corsica and promising to provide Rousseau with all the necessary information.

Rousseau, who received this letter in October of the same year, immediately accepted the assignment with excitement and wrote back to the Ambassador of Corsica:

"For the rest of my years I had no other interests, except myself and Corsica, and everything else had been drained from my mind."

The following year, Rousseau published the Opinion on the Constitution of Corsica, in which he set out his conception of the constitution of Corsica in general, which was his first involvement in the drafting of a constitution before providing advice to the Polish government.

Unfortunately, in 1768, France annexed Corsica, and Rousseau's constitution-making work came to an end, and he had to condemn the French in frustration and throw all his ideas into the garbage.

Of course, many historians believe that Pauli probably did not really want to use Rousseau's constitution, and that he may have simply wanted to use Rousseau's sociological reputation to enhance the legitimacy of the Corsican government.

But in this timeline, since Corsica has not yet been annexed, indicating that Rousseau's constitutional work is still continuing, it is not surprising that he had a correspondence with Pauli a few months ago.

After sorting out this relationship, Lawrence couldn't help but narrow his eyes slightly, and suddenly had an idea.

Since Rousseau was still working on the constitution of Corsica, and he was about to return to Corsica to reorganize the Constituent Assembly to determine the constitutional monarchy of Corsica, it was entirely possible to invite Rousseau to work in Corsica.

"He could be given the status of a member of the Constituent Assembly... No, it would be most appropriate for him to be the speaker, after all, the speaker's status is high enough and he doesn't have much real power. ”

Lawrence looked at Rousseau quietly, and secretly planned in his heart:

"Maybe it wouldn't be bad to have him as Secretary of State for Education... No, that kind of political symbolism is not strong enough, and it is indeed the president of the Constituent Assembly who is most suitable. ”

Lawrence knew that even in this world, it was only a matter of time before Rousseau's ideas would have influenced thousands of revolutionaries.

And if Rousseau can be allowed to become a member of the Corsican government, especially the top of the government, then in the future Lawrence can fully claim that the Corsican government is the orthodox successor of Rousseau's ideas.

"In this way, in the future revolution, there may be unexpected effects."

Lawrence narrowed his eyes and looked at Mr. Rousseau, who was still puzzled in front of him, and thought silently.