132 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



the profane,' the party went on by Gaeta and the coast road to the 

 warmer climate of Naples . There de Saussure met with a most con- 

 genial companion and guide in the English Minister, Sir William 

 Hamilton, who had already lived at Naples for six years, and 

 had recently published his Observations on Etna, Vesuvius, and 

 other Volcanoes. 1 Hamilton was equally keen on natural science 

 and on classical vases. He was delighted to act as de Saussure 's 

 guide to Vesuvius. While the philosophers climbed, or wandered 

 over the Phlegraean fields, their wives the first Lady Hamilton 

 was then alive made friends. Then the whole company visited 

 the islands, Procida and Ischia, listened to the improvisatori, 

 who celebrated their visitors' arrival in appropriate chants, and 

 studied the manners and customs of the peasants, which recalled 

 to de Saussure Greece and Homer. Of this visit to Naples 

 Senebier writes : 



' You should have heard de Saussure himself speak ; his enthusiasm 

 returned in thinking of it, and he renewed his happiness in remem- 

 brance.' 



Here is his own description, written on the spot to Madame 

 Bonnet : 



' Oh, my aunt, my good aunt, this is the place, this is the climate 

 you need to restore your health ; this air, pure, lovely, and soft, we 

 breathe, this sun, whose heat is always tempered by a fresh breeze, 

 these magnificent prospects, these woods of oranges and lemons en- 

 closed by hedges of figs and aloes crowned by some great palm- trees ! ' 



and in another letter : 



' What an abode for a naturalist ! The earth covered with rare 

 plants, the sea as yet hardly at all investigated by capable observers, 

 ancient and modern volcanoes, and their various products, vapours, 

 baths, mineral springs. To study this land as it deserves, not one man, 

 but a thousand, not a few days, but centuries, would be needed. And 

 imagine there is not a single man I repeat, not one to make such a 

 study, I do not say his occupation, but his amusement.' 



The last sentence seems a little hard on Sir William Hamilton, 

 who did occupy himself a good deal in a dilettante way at Naples. 

 At any rate, he went up Vesuvius twenty-four times in four 



1 His Campi Phlegrcei, published in 1779, contains many references to de 

 Saussure. 



