Biographical Memoir of Charles Bonnet. 215 



rise even in matters connected with religion. Its laws and its 

 customs, in fine, guaranteed to the profession of letters so high 

 a degree of estimation, that the mere offices of instruction were 

 considered as superior to all others. 



But if, in this country, human institutions are so favourable 

 to study in general, how much more powerfully does nature here 

 excite the mind to the contemplation of her economy and laws ! 

 How is the traveller struck with admiration, when, on a fine 

 summer day, after having forced his laborious progress over the 

 summits of Jura, he arrives at that pass where the immense basin 

 of Geneva suddenly expands before him ; when he sees at a glance 

 that beautiful lake, the waters of which reflect the azure hue of 

 the sky still purer and deeper ; that vast expanse of low coun- 

 try, so highly cultivated, and interspersed with such pleasant 

 abodes ; those little hills, rising gradually above each other, and 

 clothed with so rich a vegetation ; those mountains covered with 

 forests of perpetual verdure ; the towering ridge of the upper 

 Alps, rising above this superb amphitheatre ; and Mont Blanc, 

 the monarch of the mountains of Europe, crowning it with his 

 enormous load of snows, where the arrangement of the masses, 

 and the opposition of the lights and shadows, produce an effect 

 which no description could ever adequately convey to the con- 

 ception of him who has not beheld this wonderful scene. 



And this beautiful country, so calculated to strike the imagi- 

 nation, to develope the talents of the poet or the painter, is per- 

 haps still better adapted to awaken the curiosity of the philoso- 

 pher, and call forth the researches of the naturalist. It is truly 

 here that Nature seems to delight in shewing herself under a 

 multiplicity of aspects. 



The rarest plants, from those of the temperate climates to 

 those of the frozen zone, are displayed to the botanist within 

 the compass of a few steps. The zoologist may there pursue 

 insects as varied as the vegetation which nourishes them. The 

 lake, from its depth, its extent, and even the violence of its mo- 

 tions, forms to the natural philosopher a sort of sea. The geo- 

 logist, who elsewhere sees only the external crust of the globe, 

 finds there the central masses rising, and protruding on all hands 

 through their envelopes, to disclose themselves to his view. 

 Lastly, the meteorologist can there, at all times, mark the for- 



i>2 



