YOUTH AND EARLY TRAVELS 75 



avalanche which fell from the moraine of the glacier under the 

 Aiguille du Midi. 



In April 1762 another Professorship became vacant at the 

 Academy, that of Philosophy. The title as understood at Geneva 

 was a very comprehensive one. ' At this time,' writes a late 

 Librarian of the Town Library at Geneva, ' Philosophy was held 

 to include Psychology, Logic, Morals, and Divinity, and also the 

 general principles of the Natural Sciences, with some acquaintance 

 with the views of Bacon, Descartes, and Leibnitz.' The Venerable 

 Company, the Pastors and Professors of the Academy, accordingly 

 petitioned the Magnificent Council, which held Geneva under a 

 wide-reaching control, that the Chair might be divided. Physical 

 Science, they declared, was all the fashion, Rational Philosophy 

 in great danger of being neglected. They talked, as clerical 

 bodies are apt to talk, of ' the poison which spreads itself every- 

 where and threatens to infect the sources of public education.' 

 But their proposal was obviously sound . It was clearly monstrous 

 to call on a Professor of Physical Science to spend half his time 

 in teaching metaphysics, while his own students were receiving 

 instruction in the subjects on which he was an expert from a man 

 who could have but slender qualifications for the task. It was 

 equally unfortunate and probably the Venerable Company 

 resented it more that a master in Metaphysics and Morals 

 should be called on to devote his energies to other and more 

 secular subjects. 



The eloquence of the Pastors was fruitless ; the conservative 

 Senate resolved that there should be no change made at the 

 coming election, but that it should be left open to consideration 

 at a future date whether the steps proposed by the Venerable 

 Company were desirable. This date did not arrive until 1823 ! 

 Even then no satisfactory conclusion was reached. 



In 1762 three candidates for the Professorship came forward. 

 Each had to produce two theses, one on Philosophy and one on 

 Natural Science. De Saussure was also able to adduce as a 

 qualification his botanical tract. He now wrote on the ' Principal 

 Causes of Errors arising from the Qualities of the Mind ' and ' On 

 Rainbows, Halos, and Parhelia.' His candidature had the in- 

 fluential support of ' The Great Haller,' and he was elected by a 

 majority after a contest which is said ' to have done honour to 



