The Mémoire présenté à M. de Mably sur l’éducation de M. son
fils is Rousseau’s first writing related to his experience as an
educator. In 1740 he took up a difficult position as tutor in the
family of the notable Jean Bonnot de Mably, provost general of
police in the Lyon region. This position came to an end after only
one year. Two young children with little inclination to study had
been entrusted to his care: François-Paul-Marie Bonnot de Mably,
called Monsieur de Sainte-Marie, five and a half years old, and
Jean-Antoine Bonnot de Mably, called Monsieur de Condillac, four
and a half years old. The long Mémoire, dedicated to the older
boy, emphasizes the “educational mission” and experience with
practical education: it is presented as a plan and a synthesis; its
writing has been dated around December 1740. The young tutor
addresses M. de Mably and makes known to him the plan and structure
for the education of his son in order to shape “the heart, the
judgment and the spirit.” This is not the natural education,
which later on will be advocated in ’Émile. Did Rousseau really
present this Mémoire to M. de Mably? Known is only that he gave
this manuscript of the Mémoire to Mme Dupin, his employer in 1743,
and that since then it has been kept with the “Papers of Mme
Dupin.” It was published for the first time in Paris in 1884 by
G. de Villeneuve-Guibert in Le portefeuille de Madame Dupin. The
Fondation Bodmer’s manuscript is the only one in existence. A
Projet d’éducation, much shorter, more clearly structured and of
unknown date, was found among Rousseau’s papers at the time of
his death (this manuscript, now lost, was first published in Geneva
in 1782). It is very similar to the Mémoire and seems to have been
written
Rights
e-codices - Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland
