But you think they are at least sincere in their foolish precepts.  Not so, dear Emile; they deceive themselves in order to deceive you; they are not in agreement with themselves; their heart continually revolts, and their very words often contradict themselves.  This man who mocks at everything good would be in despair if his wife held the same views.  Another extends his indifference to good morals even to his future wife, or he sinks to such depths of infamy as to be indifferent to his wife’s conduct; but go a step further; speak to him of his mother; is he willing to be treated as the child of an adulteress and the son of a woman of bad character, is he ready to assume the name of a family, to steal the patrimony of the true heir, in a word will he bear being treated as a bastard?  Which of them will permit his daughter to be dishonoured as he dishonours the daughter of another?  There is not one of them who would not kill you if you adopted in your conduct towards him all the principles he tries to teach you.  Thus they prove their inconsistency, and we know they do not believe what they say.  Here are reasons, dear Emile; weigh their arguments if they have any, and compare them with mine.  If I wished to have recourse like them to scorn and mockery, you would see that they lend themselves to ridicule as much or more than myself.  But I am not afraid of serious inquiry.  The triumph of mockers is soon over; truth endures, and their foolish laughter dies away.

You do not think that Emile, at twenty, can possibly be docile.  How differently we think!  I cannot understand how he could be docile at ten, for what hold have I on him at that age?  It took me fifteen years of careful preparation to secure that hold.  I was not educating him, but preparing him for education.  He is now sufficiently educated to be docile; he recognises the voice of friendship and he knows how to obey reason.  It is true I allow him a show of freedom, but he was never more completely under control, because he obeys of his own free will.  So long as I could not get the mastery over his will, I retained my control over his person; I never left him for a moment.  Now I sometimes leave him to himself because I control him continually.  When I leave him I embrace him and I say with confidence:  Emile, I trust you to my friend, I leave you to his honour; he will answer for you.

To corrupt healthy affections which have not been previously depraved, to efface principles which are directly derived from our own reasoning, is not the work of a moment.  If any change takes place during my absence, that absence will not be long, he will never be able to conceal himself from me, so that I shall perceive the danger before any harm comes of it, and I shall be in time to provide a remedy.  As we do not become depraved all at once, neither do we learn to deceive all at once; and if ever there was a man unskilled in the art of deception it is Emile, who has never had any occasion for deceit.