# Rousseau's contract also leaves room for sacred beginnings

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH05.P005](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH05.P005/#char=315,398): "men had ever aimed at order or ethics directly by a conscious exchange of interests"

Rousseau is a useful comparison, although Chesterton names no particular theorist. In *The Social Contract* (1762), I.6, the compact's clauses need never have been explicitly formulated: their authority does not depend on discovering a recorded founding bargain. His *Discourse on Inequality* (1755), introductory argument, expressly presents its account of origins as hypothetical rather than historical. Thus absence of evidence for an actual transaction cannot by itself refute these arguments.

There is a closer complication. *Social Contract* II.7 makes sacred authority help establish political institutions when force and rational persuasion cannot do so; IV.8 describes early societies as theocracies whose gods and laws were inseparable. Chesterton's sacred origins therefore overlap with something Rousseau himself recognizes, although their explanations differ. Chesterton makes devotion generate virtues indirectly; Rousseau examines how founders secure assent to institutions. The comparison qualifies a sweeping opposition between contract and religion without identifying Rousseau as Chesterton's documented target. The inspected witness is G. D. H. Cole's English translation in the 1920 Dent/Dutton *Social Contract & Discourses*, later than *Orthodoxy*, and is not evidence of Chesterton's reading.

## Sources

- [Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract & Discourses, translated G. D. H. Cole (1920)](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46333/46333-h/46333-h.htm), Social Contract I.6, II.7, IV.8; Discourse on Inequality, opening argument before Part I

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