From the banks of the Neva to the shores of the Mediterranean, the people of Europe were uneasy and expectant.

Men everywhere felt that the social system was threatened with a cataclysm.
What would emerge from the general deluge none could foresee.

Certainly, the last remains of the old feudality would be engulfed forever.

Nowhere was this more thoroughly believed than at the home of Rousseau.

Under the shadow of the Alps, every breeze from which was free, the Genevese philosopher had written his "Contrat social," and invited the rulers and the ruled to a reorganization of their relations to each other and to the world.