Life and Writings of Theodore de Saussure. 3 



tional life, which often surrounds children reared under the 

 paternal roof, was here experienced ; some faults were no 

 doubt acquired, but a greater number of others were corrected. 

 Theodore de Saussure's father, who had been brought up at 

 college, and who had perhaps acquired there that firmness of 

 principle and resolution, that masculine energy which charac- 

 terised him, and fitted him as well for contending with men as 

 for surmounting natural obstacles, did not think it expedient 

 to send his son thither. Having himself become one of the 

 most influential functionaries of public instruction, appointed 

 professor at the age of 22, and called upon to give instruction 

 to men nearly of his own age, this strong-minded and reflect- 

 ing man was naturally led to examine very carefully the sys- 

 tem of public education followed in Geneva, and particularly 

 in the college. He was struck with its defects, and did not 

 perhaps sufficiently appreciate its advantages. His views were 

 of great utility, and aimed at an important object, and he pub- 

 lished them successively in two pamphlets, entitled, Projet de 

 Reforme pour la College de Geneve, and Eclaircissements siir 

 ce Projet, These plans met with little success at the time, 

 but they sowed the seeds of improvements which we have 

 since seen springing up, and, a very few years ago, reaching 

 maturity ; but as they did not produce any immediate change, 

 Horace Benedict de Saussure did not think he could place his 

 son in an institution which he had found fault with in so pub* 

 lie a manner. My belief is, that this determination wa3 

 unfortunate. When I learn, from the pamphlets of the day, the 

 nature of the instruction given at the college ; when I read, in 

 the letters of Dr Odier, preserved in his family, details at once 

 interesting and painful, respecting the want of skill and the 

 carelessness of the teachers of that period, and the decay into 

 which the almost total want of superintendence allowed the 

 establishment to fall ; when I call to mind the state of things 

 which would disgust every mother, and the majority of fathers 

 of a family — the insults, the blows, which were the usual 

 means of correction — I cannot help thinking that the fundamen- 

 tal principle of such an institution must have been vigorous, 

 and energetic, and profitable, in order to produce so many dis- 

 tinguished and celebrated men, notwithstanding such promi- 



