86 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



filled several public offices with distinction, and would have succeeded 

 to others. I have had to console myself, my wife, who was in the 

 deepest affliction, and her sisters, rendered orphans by this death. 

 We have passed these last ten or twelve days in the saddest way. 

 They seem to have lasted twelve months.' 



He adds : 



' I have observed on this occasion the great resource that crushed 

 and deeply grieved souls find in religion. It is the surest channel 

 through which consolation can be bestowed, it is from it alone that 

 arguments can be drawn for submitting with patience and resignation 

 to misfortune, and my detestation of those who endeavour to deprive 

 men of this precious refuge has been redoubled.' 



This is one of the few occasions on which de Saussure breaks 

 his reserve on religious matters. His philosophical lectures, 

 while giving little positive indication of the writer's doctrinal 

 beliefs and sympathies, indicate a similar attitude of resolute 

 opposition to the materialism of the day. 



Meanwhile the young Professor's time was, we gather from 

 his correspondence, fully occupied. In addition to the work of 

 his double Professorship, he was, in 1766, called on to act as 

 Secretary of the Venerable Company of Pastors, which, amongst 

 other duties, practically controlled the Academy. His mind was 

 further diverted, somewhat unwillingly perhaps, from his travels 

 and his scientific studies by a prolonged political correspondence 

 with his friend Haller. This will be better postponed to a sub- 

 sequent chapter. 



Marriage had naturally led to a sensible pause in de Saussure 's 

 visits to the mountains. The summer of 1765 was a blank in 

 his Alpine record. In 1766 we read only of an ascent of the Mole, 

 and a short excursion to Samoens and Sixt. It was not till July 

 1767 that he resumed his serious travels by a tour of Mont Blanc 

 with two friends, Jean Louis Pictet l and Fra^ois Jalabert. 

 Pictet was to provide a map, and Jalabert illustrations. The 

 results were combined with those of earlier and later expeditions 

 in the second volume of the Voyages. This journey, like all de 

 Saussure 's Alpine expeditions, was very carefully planned. He at 

 first proposed to start from the Mont Cenis and traverse to Val 



1 Pictet the Siberian traveller, not de Saussure's pupil and successor in his 

 Professorship. 



