4 Baron Cuvier's Historical Eldge of Baron llamond. 



An idea may be formed of the liveliness of the impressions 

 which he experienced, from the notes to his translation of the 

 Letters of Coxe upon Switzerland. With what truth he there 

 paints both those beautiful valleys, where the surface of the 

 globe had already attained an equilibrium, and its rugged 

 rocks whose ruins still threatened the abode of man, and those 

 eternal glaciers, the insurmountable limits to every species of 

 organization ! with what delight he speaks of the charms of a 

 country life ! with what penetration he sees through the intrigues 

 and the passions which agitate those petty democracies \ and 

 nevertheless, how he makes these simple shepherds respectable, 

 and how he shows them to be full of sense and of justice in the 

 exercise of the highest powers.* This manner of describing 

 what he had seen, in notes on the works of another, arose en- 

 tirely from his modesty. He thought himself too young to 

 write a book of his own, but his readers thought otherwise. 

 The lively pace of the commentator pleased them more than 

 the grave step of the author. We really think that we are 

 travelling in Switzerland with M . Ramond, and what perhaps 

 never happened before, his French translation was re-translated 

 into English, with his additions, and in that form it met with 

 greater success in England than the original itself. Coxe, how- 

 ever, as we may believe, was not so well pleased as the public ; 

 and in a more enlarged edition which he published some time 

 afterwards, he did not even mention the name of the author 

 who had so powerfully contributed to the success of the first. 



The letters on Switzerland had made M. Ramond known 

 at Paris. They were there surprised that a young Alsacian 

 could write French with such elegance and power, and could 

 display on so many different subjects such boldness and judg- 

 ment. They were still more so, when, in the most brilliant 

 circles, he showed himself the equal of men who were most 

 celebrated for their conversational talents. The genius for 

 society has always been in France the first of passports, and it 

 was then more than ever that the spirit of party had not begun 

 to make war upon it. Hence M. Ramond had only to choose 



♦ Lettres de M. Coxe a M. W. Melraoth, sur I'etat politique, civile, et 

 iiaturel de la Suisse, traduites de I'Anglais, et augmentees des observations 

 faites sur le meme pays, par le traducteur. 2 vols- 8vo. Paris, Belin, 1781. 



