Frontispiece of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Emile by de Launay

This is the frontispiece created by de Launay for Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s 1782 edition of Emile. The original caption read: « L’éducation de l’homme commence à sa naissance » (Man’s education begins at birth). Emile or On Education is a treatise on the nature of education and on the nature of man written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who considered it to be the “best and most important of all my writings.” Due to a section of the book entitled “Profession of Faith of the Savoyard Vicar,” Emile was banned in Paris and Geneva, and was publicly burned in 1762, the year of its first publication. During the French Revolution, Emile served as the inspiration for what became a new national system of education in France. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Emile,_or_On_Education