De Saussure 87 



summits, whence the eye can take in at one sweep a multi- 

 plicity of objects. Such excursions are toilsome, I admit ; 

 we must relinquish carriages, and even horses, endure great 

 fatigue, and expose ourselves sometimes to considerable 

 danger. Many a time the naturalist, when almost within 

 reach of a summit on which he eagerly longs to stand, 

 may doubt whether he has still strength enough left to 

 reach it, or whether he can surmount the precipices which 

 guard its approaches. But the keen fresh air which he 

 breathes makes a balm to flow in his veins that restores 

 him, and the expectation of the great panorama which he 

 will enjoy, and of the new truths which it will display to 

 him, renews his strength and his courage. He gains the 

 top. His eyes, dazzled and drawn equally in every 

 direction, at first know not where to fix themselves. By 

 degrees he grows accustomed to the great light, makes 

 choice of the objects that should chiefly occupy his 

 attention, and determines the order to be followed in 

 observing them. But what words can describe the sensa- 

 tions or the ideas with which the sublime spectacle fills 

 the soul of the philosopher. Standing as it were above the 

 globe, he seems to discover the forces that move it, at 

 least he recognizes the principal agents that effect its 

 revolutions." 



De Saussure spent his life among the scenes he so 

 enthusiastically described, studying the meteorology no 

 less than the geology of the Alps. As regards the 

 geological structure of the mountains and the origin of 

 their component rocks, he seems hardly to have advanced 

 beyond the ideas of Pallas. He believed, with Werner, 

 that the central granite had resulted from deposition and 



