96 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



dont son merite vray m'avoit penetre. Ses lumieres, sea vertus et son 

 amour vous font le plus heureux des hommes. Gardez longtemps un 

 si cher tresor.' 



In addition to his family letters, de Saussure's intimate journal, 

 written during his stay in Paris and Holland, has fortunately been 

 preserved, and it shows that during the whole period he was 

 assiduous in pursuing his scientific studies, visiting the savants 

 of the day, and studying botany and horticulture at Choisy le Roi 

 and at the Jardin du Roi with Coste, the chemical side of geology 

 with Baume, and attending lectures by Valmont de Bomare. 

 With the geologist Desmarets he talked over the basalts of 

 Auvergne, the character of which was at that moment the sub- 

 ject of an acute controversy between Werner and the French 

 geologists. If he was eager in the pursuit of knowledge the 

 patrician Professor found plenty of time for pleasure, and the five 

 young people went out a great deal. De Saussure's journal 

 gives evidence both of his taste for society and his keen interest 

 in character in both sexes, while the affectionate letters, still 

 preserved, that he received in later years from several of his 

 friends among the French aristocracy, both men and women, 

 show that the young Genevese philosopher was at least as inter- 

 esting as he was interested. 



In Mile. Tronchin, the daughter of the celebrated Dr. Tronchin, 

 who had a fine apartment in the Petit Jardin of the Palais Royal, 

 the party found a friend who knew the town and no doubt 

 furnished them with many introductions. They frequented the 

 salon of the Duchesse d'Enville and dined with the delightful 

 young Due de la Rochefoucauld, destined to be one of the victims 

 of the Revolution, who had visited Geneva and Chamonix 

 as early as 1762. They made the acquaintance of the Due 

 d'Harcourt, 'le meilleur homme du monde et de la vieille 

 roche.' His brother the Marquis and his wife de Saussure 

 describes as 'couple charmant, bonnes gens, simples et honnetes.' 



De Saussure reports at length the conversation at the 

 d'Envilles' of the Abbe Galiani, ' an original who talked sensibly 

 and cleverly on politics.' 1 He discussed liberty and tyranny. 



1 See Lord Morley's Diderot, vol. ii. p. 272 : ' Galiani, the antiquary, the 

 scholar, the politician, the incomparable mimic, the shrewdest, wittiest, and 

 gayest of men after Voltaire.' He was the author of a work with the unpromising 



