Let us do what is right without ostentation; let us not fall into vanity through our efforts to resist it.  To pride ourselves on our victory over prejudice is to succumb to prejudice.  It is said that in accordance with an old custom of the Ottomans, the sultan is obliged to work with his hands, and, as every one knows, the handiwork of a king is a masterpiece.  So he royally distributes his masterpieces among the great lords of the Porte and the price paid is in accordance with the rank of the workman.  It is not this so-called abuse to which I object; on the contrary, it is an advantage, and by compelling the lords to share with him the spoils of the people it is so much the less necessary for the prince to plunder the people himself.  Despotism needs some such relaxation, and without it that hateful rule could not last.

The real evil in such a custom is the idea it gives that poor man of his own worth.  Like King Midas he sees all things turn to gold at his touch, but he does not see the ass’ ears growing.  Let us keep Emile’s hands from money lest he should become an ass, let him take the work but not the wages.  Never let his work be judged by any standard but that of the work of a master.  Let it be judged as work, not because it is his.  If anything is well done, I say, “That is a good piece of work,” but do not ask who did it.  If he is pleased and proud and says, “I did it,” answer indifferently, “No matter who did it, it is well done.”

Good mother, be on your guard against the deceptions prepared for you.  If your son knows many things, distrust his knowledge; if he is unlucky enough to be rich and educated in Paris he is ruined.  As long as there are clever artists he will have every talent, but apart from his masters he will have none.  In Paris a rich man knows everything, it is the poor who are ignorant.  Our capital is full of amateurs, especially women, who do their work as M. Gillaume invents his colours.  Among the men I know three striking exceptions, among the women I know no exceptions, and I doubt if there are any.  In a general way a man becomes an artist and a judge of art as he becomes a Doctor of Laws and a magistrate.

If then it is once admitted that it is a fine thing to have a trade, your children would soon have one without learning it.  They would become postmasters like the councillors of Zurich.  Let us have no such ceremonies for Emile; let it be the real thing not the sham.  Do not say what he knows, let him learn in silence.  Let him make his masterpiece, but not be hailed as master; let him be a workman not in name but in deed.

If I have made my meaning clear you ought to realise how bodily exercise and manual work unconsciously arouse thought and reflexion in my pupil, and counteract the idleness which might result from his indifference to men’s judgments, and his freedom from passion.  He must work like a peasant and think like a philosopher, if he is not to be as idle as a savage.  The great secret of education is to use exercise of mind and body as relaxation one to the other.