This chapter is an extended analysis of a short piece of writing, the 6e Promenade of Rousseau's Rêveries du promeneur solitaire, a piece of writing which emerges as crucially important for this study. The 6e Promenade may be seen as a history of Rousseau and of man: his natural goodness, his life in society fraught with difficulties and dangers, and his struggle to achieve virtue. It is, moreover, the history of man as benefactor.

Rousseau's identification with the perspective of the beneficiary in his Confessions does not preclude a wishful identification with the benefactor; every beneficiary must ultimately aim to be a benefactor in his turn. The 6e Promenade contains one of Rousseau's rare discussions of the problem of beneficence from the point of view of the donor; it reveals important implications of Rousseau's portrayal of the perfect benefactor. It begins with an anecdotal example of failed beneficence, a failure which could be blamed on the socio-historical situation of the benefactor (Rousseau) and of his beneficiary. This example, as a real event, should be regulated by, and can be analysed according to, the classical code. But Rousseau proceeds to test his generosity by means of a magical daydream, allowing himself an exaggerated version of the characteristics which he attributes to his models in La Nouvelle Héloïse and Emile: self-effacement and penetrating vision.