I would love society as much as any other man, where I not sure of showing myself there not only to my disadvantage but quite other than I really am. My decision to write and to hide myself was perfectly suited to me. With me present, no one would ever have known what I was worth.
(Rousseau 116, my emphasis)
As Starobinski argues, paradoxically Rousseau must hide "in order to make himself more visible" (125). He must be absent in order to be present.
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