It is doubtful whether the “ Discourse on Political Economy ,” first printed in the great Encyclopaedia in 1755, was composed before or after the “ Discourse on Inequality .” At first sight the former seems to be far more in the manner of the Social Contract and to contain views belonging essentially to Rousseau’s constructive period. It would not, however, be safe to conclude from this that its date is really later. The “ Discourse on Inequality ” still has about it much of the rhetorical looseness of the prize essay; it aims not so much at close reasoning as at effective and popular presentation of a case. But, by reading between the lines, an attentive student can detect in it a great deal of the positive doctrine afterwards incorporated in the Social Contract