He continued writing, completing his Confessions banned by the police in1771 following complaints by former friends like Diderot and Madame d'Epinay who were featured in the book. The book was eventually published after his death in 1782.
Rousseau argued that we are inherently good, but we become corrupted by the evils of society In later life he wished to live a simple life, to be close to nature and to enjoy what it gives us. Through attending to nature we are more likely to live a life of virtue.
The cry of ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’ is familiar to us today through the French Revolution. Rousseau was democratic. The focus of Émile is upon the individual tuition of a young man in line with the principles of natural education, variously interpreted yet perhaps a call for national education. He defended man against the institutions with emphasis upon ‘natural’ education.