FORERUNNERS 23 



Europe. De Saussure was the true author of our modern 

 passion for Alpine scenery, as well as the first systematic 

 Alpine explorer. 



In making this claim I recognise that I am running counter 

 to the common disposition to credit the creation of the love of 

 the Alps to Rousseau, a tradition resting to a great extent on 

 the authority of Chateaubriand, who disliked Rousseau and 

 the Alps equally, and was delighted to couple them in his 

 invective. 



There were, no doubt, mental links between the author of 

 the Nouvelle Heloise and the climber of Mont Blanc in their 

 common appreciation of the virtues of the Alpine peasantry ; and 

 in such phrases of de Saussure as ' Luxury and the love of money 

 are the tomb of liberty ' we may seem to catch an echo of 

 Rousseau's eloquence. But with respect to natural scenery, de 

 Saussure 's appreciation was independent of and very much wider 

 in scope than that of the guest of Les Charmettes. 



In an attempt to estimate the work of de Saussure it seems 

 to me essential to reassert this fact, and it is the more essential 

 since one so eminent, both as a critic and a climber, as Leslie 

 Stephen has given his support to the popular tradition. In one 

 of the opening chapters of The Playground of Europe (1871) he 

 wrote as follows : 



' If Rousseau were tried for the crime of setting up mountains as 

 objects of human worship he would be convicted by any impartial 

 jury. He was aided, it is true, by accomplices, none of whom were 

 more conspicuous than de Saussure.' 



Such a verdict, I venture to say, could only be returned by 

 a jury which had not heard the competent witnesses, or had been 

 wrongly charged from the Bench. Stephen goes on to call 

 Rousseau ' The Columbus of the Alps, or the Luther of the new 

 creed of Mountain Worship.' These comparisons are picturesque, 

 but, I venture to think, unsustainable. 



In appealing against them I shall call as witnesses critics of 

 the highest rank. Lord Morley has put the case fairly enough. 

 Rousseau's attitude towards nature, he tells us, was closely 

 connected with his politics and philosophy ; his praise of rustic 

 or pastoral landscape was in great part inspired by his desire to 



