Rousseau

I am particularly interested in Rousseau's concept of the soul and how it relates to the sovereign and the surrender of the individual to the sovereign. (page 151.)

I think it is interesting that, according to Rousseau, that submitting to the sovereign lets the individual lift his soul. I wandered what the implications of this are for the individual? If the sovereign has the power to lift the individual’s soul then does the sovereign then have power over his soul? Especially if, as Rousseua says, the abuses of the sovereign often knock the individuals soul down.

"His faculties are exercised and developed, his ideas are broadened, his feelings are ennobled, his entire soul is elevated to such a height that, if the abuse of this new condition did not often lower his status to beneath the level he left, he ought constantly to bless the happy moment that, pulled him away from it forever and which transformed him from a stupid, limited animal into an intelligent being and a man."

so...this is just a clarification...there seems to be a difference between the sovereign and the master and that difference seems to be that the sovereign is just an extension of the will of the people. However, I am a little unclear on this.