228 Biographical Meynoir of' Horace Benedict- de Saussure. 



the deluge, and to deduce from it the present state of the globe. 

 Leibnitz was the first who had attempted to distinguish upon 

 the earth parts raised by fire, and others deposited by water. 

 Bourgeret, judging of the high valleys from those of level coun- 

 tries, had them all scooped out by currents. BufFon, lastly, 

 combining the ideas of Whiston, Leibnitz, and Bourguet, made 

 a comet knock oflP from the sun, the melted masses, of which the 

 earth and the other planets were formed, and gave the globe thou- 

 sands of ages to cool, thousands more to receive water from the 

 atmosphere, and become the abode of incipient life, and other 

 thousands still to have its surface elevated into mountains, or 

 scooped into valleys. In his first volumes he made no distinction 

 between the different orders of mountains, and appeared to be- 

 lieve all their strata to be horizontal. It could scarcely be said 

 that the Pallases, the Delucs, and the German and Swedish mi- 

 neralogists, had begun to make regular observations on the struc- 

 ture of the earth, and to draw general conclusions from what 

 they had seen. Their labours were little known in France, and 

 the learned who were in repute treated almost all geology as 

 chimerical. Saussure applied himself to the labour of raising it 

 to the dignity of a real science; and, for this purpose, resolved 

 to carry into it that accuracy of determination which the study 

 of mathematics had given him, together with all the advantages 

 resulting from a profound knowledge of physics. But these 

 aids would still have been inefficient, without the firm resolution 

 of long and patiently observing nature on the spot. 



Let those who have crossed great mountains only by regular 

 roads, fancy to themselves the courage of the man who destined 

 himself to spend his life among them, to scale all their peaks, 

 to explore all their recesses, and who, for this object, abandoned 

 all the enjoyments of friendship and fortune. To make long 

 excursions in those high valleys which no vehicle ever approach- 

 ed ; to partake with the poor inhabitants of their black and hard 

 bread ; to have only their smoky cabins, open to all the winds 

 of heaven, for a place of repose ; to pursue as the only path the 

 rocky bed of a torrent ; to hook one's way with hands and feet 

 to the sharp ridges of cliffs ; to leap from one point to another 

 above a precipice ; to be at times surprised by winds that blow 

 him over, and at others by fogs that obscure the path or freeze 



