26 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



Beside this may be put the testimony of Mademoiselle Rosalie 

 de Constant, a friend of Mme. de StaSl. Referring to the eighties 

 of the eighteenth century, she wrote : 



' It was only about this period that the gigantic nature by which 

 we are surrounded began to be admired. Travellers from a distance 

 came to Geneva in order to make the trip to Chamonix, which had 

 only recently become known. Nothing can show more clearly the 

 influence of faehion. It might seem that the great immovable moun- 

 tains had only become noticeable since the observations and travels 

 of Monsieur de Saussure.' 1 



A further and striking evidence of the growth during this 

 decade of Alpine travel may be found in the long list of works 

 and prints dealing with Switzerland appended to Ebel's guide- 

 book (1793). 



If we turn to the pages of the Alpine travellers who were 

 Rousseau's contemporaries to ascertain to what extent they were 

 influenced by his writings, we find that Bourrit's passion for the 

 Alps took possession of him in 1757, some years before the 

 publication of the Nouvelle Helo'ise. The typical representative 

 of the British tourist in Switzerland in Rousseau's and de 

 Saussure 's day was Archdeacon Coxe. Coxe, whose book went 

 through several editions, and was translated into French by 

 Ramond, the well-known Pyrenean traveller, expressly states 

 that the object of his journey was to study the glaciers of which 

 he had read so much. He adds a list of the authors he has con- 

 sulted, which includes most of the principal works of the Swiss 

 naturalists. To ' anecdotes of Haller ' Coxe devotes a whole 

 chapter. It was only at the end of his tour in 1776, when he 

 reached Lausanne, that he borrowed a copy of the Nouvelle 

 Helo'ise from a circulating library and went over its sites. It 

 must be obvious, I think, to any attentive reader of his work 

 that the worthy Archdeacon was first led to the mountains by 

 the reports about the glaciers, and that he was in no sense a pupil 

 and follower of Rousseau. 



Finally, let me turn to passages in Rousseau's own writings 

 which have been cited in proof of his taste for mountain scenery. 



1 Sec Rosalie de Constant, sa famille et sea amis, par Mile. Lucie Achard, 

 Geneve, 1902. 



