Thus arise the clan, the tribe, the nation.

The nation may delegate many of its powers to a ruler; but if he abuse such powers, the contract between him and his people is at an end, and they may return to the primitive state, which is founded on an agreement of equals with equals.

Herein lay the attractiveness of Rousseau for all who were discontented with their surroundings.

He seemed infallibly to demonstrate the absurdity of tyranny and the need of returning to the primitive bliss of the social contract.

It mattered not that the said contract was utterly unhistorical and that his argument teemed with fallacies.