EULOGY ON ARTHUR AUGUSTE DE LA RIVE. 203 



hatred of display, the active beuevoleuce, absence of pride, and aversion 

 to pedantry, which are characteristic in Savoy of the habits and manners 

 of the gentleman. 



His quiet life in this peaceful retreat was troubled by the material 

 speculations of the age, which he regarded with more solicitude than 

 most of his countrymen. Attached to the truths of the Christian reli- 

 gion, he was a member of the Protestant Church of Geneva, but his 

 respect was great for the Eoman Catholic faith, which was professed by 

 many of his relations and friends, and by the larger part of the resi- 

 dent population in the neighborhood of Presinge, among whom he lived, 

 loving and beloved, sharing all their interests, moral and religious, even 

 to the building of their church. In what times of religious disorder we 

 live, he said, and how science is implicated. In our youth, full of enthu- 

 siasm for her, we little thought a day would come when she would deny 

 the assertion of Bossuet, "Were man openlj^ to declare himself God, 

 his pride would revolt at such presumption; but to call himself God, 

 and yet feel himself to be mortal, is to shame even the blindest arro- 

 gance." 



The spirit of tolerance, so natural to our associate, led him to avoid 

 everything that would wound the convictions of others ; but there came 

 a time when to keep silent was to deny his faith, and he did not wish 

 the world to think that those who advocated materialism in the name of 

 science were sure of the approbation and complicity of all savants. It 

 is by no means the case, he said, with decision, and it is our duty to say 

 so. Science is great ; her role is glorious ; but her domain is circum- 

 scribed. She commands matter, but has no control over mind. We can 

 better explain the course of the stars than the astronomers of the time of 

 Homer, but have added nothing to our knowledge of the human pas- 

 sions he so vividly portrayed. Our ideas in regard to heat are more 

 certain than those of Eschylus, but concerning oppression and wrong 

 they have not changed since the protestations against tyranny and brutal 

 force of the author of Prometheus Bound. We are better acquainted 

 than Virgil with the action of the heart in the circulation of the blood, 

 but have discovered no new sentiment of pity or tenderness. Man does 

 not need science to sound the depths of the human soul, and the study 

 of the physical forces shows that between them and the moral attributes 

 there is nothing in common. 



Many associations connected De La Rive with England, formed during 

 his residence as minister in that country, and with France he was united 

 by friendship with many of its distinguished men, among whom were M. 

 de Tocqaeville and M. de Montalembert. With Savoy and Italy ancient 

 family relations had been revived and strengthened by an affectionate 

 and close intimacy with his relative, the count of Cavour, who was, 

 from his earliest infancy, accustomed to spend every year several weeks 

 at Presinge. In early life the young savant and the future statesman 



