He inspired a whole generation with detestation of the present and with longings for the golden age.

Poets had sung of it, but Rousseau seemed to bring it within the grasp of long-suffering mortals.
The first extant manuscript of Napoleon, written at Valence in April, 1786, shows that he sought in Rousseau's armoury the logical weapons for demonstrating the "right" of the Corsicans to rebel against the French.

The young hero-worshipper begins by noting that it is the birthday of Paoli.

He plunges into a panegyric on the Corsican patriots, when he is arrested by the thought that many censure them for rebelling at all.

"The divine laws forbid revolt.