46 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



trumpeting away their time from morn till evening. I recollect, not 

 many years past, how seldom the echoes of the mountains were profaned 

 by such noises, and how rarely the drones of Geneva, if any there were 

 in that once industrious city, had opportunities of displaying their 

 idleness ; but now Dissipation reigns triumphant, and to pay the 

 tribute she exacts, every fool runs headlong to throw his scrapings 

 into the voracious whirlpool of annuities ; little caring, provided he 

 feeds high and lolls in his carriage, what becomes of his posterity.' l 



1 Travels in Italy, with Sketches of Spain and Portugal, by the author of 

 Vathek, 1834, vol. i. 



