218 Dr Daubeiiy on the Writings and 



under her wing during life, but even the offsets she has sent 

 forth to otlier lands, have preserved the impress of those na- 

 tional characteristics which they had acquired from early edu- 

 cation. 



Thus Necker maintained, even in his financial measures at 

 Paris, the ideas that he has brought with him from Geneva ; 

 and his illustrious daughter was reproached and almost pro- 

 scribed by Napoleon, for the singular reason, that her writings 

 Avere not written in a French spirit. 



Nor will an impartial critic deny, tliat the literature of 

 Geneva, whatever may be its faults, possesses a greater purity 

 and elevation of sentiment, than belongs to the school which 

 was at one time regarded as essentially Parisian. With one 

 lamentable exception, no doubt, which we regret the more, 

 because the gross impurities that sully the works to which I al- 

 lude, are perceived to have been the offspring of a mind, not 

 destitute of " some glorious elements," * or deficient in high 

 and noble aspirations, the writers who have emanated from the 

 little Republic of which I speak, may fairly participate in the 

 praise which the most eminent of her native historianst claims 

 for himself as his highest merit, namely, " that of never noticing 

 vice but with the disgust it deserves, never surrounding it with 

 seductive pictures, or treating it as a subject of pleasantry ; 

 and, in the course of the whole of his voluminous publications, 

 of having never written a single passage which a modest 

 female might not read aloud without a blush." 



As for Decandolle, he partook fully in that sentiment of 

 nationality which has kept Geneva distinct from Paris, in 

 science and literature, as well as in government. 



It is related of him, that when, in 1809, he represented the 

 department of Leman in the Assembly of Notables, convened 

 by Bonaparte as Emperor, on being presented to the latter, 

 and asked by him how Geneva was pleased with its union 

 with France, he hi.d the courage to remain silent ; and no 

 sooner had the peace of 1814 secured to his native place an 



* " A goodly frame of glorious elements, 

 Had tliey been wisely mingled." 



1 Sec bibnioudi'a J'rei'ate to liia ■■ lIi:>toiro des Fi-iUKViis." 



