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Whilst a private tutor in Switzerland, the young Hegel painstakingly translated a revolutionary pamphlet exposing the oppression imposed by Bernese authorities on the Pays de Vaud. Upon his return in Germany, in 1798, he published anonymously these Letters by Jean-Jacques Cart, without ever revealing his identity thereafter. Beyond the anecdotic nature of that first publication, one can uncover some of the issues that led to the establishment of speculative idealism. In particular, the scheme of the struggle for recognition seems to have appeared there for the first time. More fundamentally, this first publication sheds light on the work of stylistic elaboration that gradually led to the system, together with, in the background, the issue of the practical scope of philosophy.