"Everything is good as it leaves the hands of the Author of things; everything degenerates in the hands of man". -Jean-Jacques Rousseau ; Emile: or On Education Emile, or On Education (1762) 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 his 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. The work tackles fundamental political and philosophical questions about the relationship between the individual and society--how, in particular, the individual might retain what Rousseau saw as innate human goodness while remaining part of a corrupting collectivity. A Classic for all Lovers of Philosophical Works!.