They deal with two distinct problems, and the Social Contract does not mark any change in the author's views.
Though it was not published till 1762 he had been working at it since 1753.] Arcadianism, which was thus only a side-issue for Rousseau, was the extreme expression of tendencies which appear in the speculations of other thinkers of the day.

Morelly and Mably argued in favour of a reversion to simpler forms of life.

They contemplated the foundation of socialistic communities by reviving institutions and practices which belonged to a past period of social evolution.

Mably, inspired by Plato, thought it possible by legislation to construct a state of antique pattern.

[Footnote: For Mably's political doctrines see Guerrier's monograph, L'Abbe de Mably (1886), where it is shown that among "the theories which determined in advance the course of the events of 1789" the Abbe's played a role which has not been duly recognised.] They ascribed evils of civilisation to inequality arising from the existence of private property, but Morelly rejected the view of the "bold sophist" Rousseau that science and art were to blame.