MONTE ROSA 285 



scenery was not in his case, as it is with us, a first object. He did 

 not find in it an adequate inducement to face obstacles far more 

 serious in imagination, but also more serious in reality, than those 

 that we encounter to-day. No doubt something must be allowed 

 also both for his deliberate temperament and for the pressure of 

 home influence. We read in his letters how his family his wife 

 and sons and two devoted sisters-in-law the whole Genthod 

 household waited and watched eagerly at Chamonix while the 

 long -contemplated attack on the great mountain was ventured. 



What was wanting in de Saussure was the element of rashness 

 that makes a pioneer. It was Bourrit's example that urged him 

 to his first serious attempt and failure on Mont Blanc. It was 

 the success of Paccard and Balmat that spurred him to follow 

 them. It was Exchaquet who induced him to camp on the Col 

 du Geant. He preferred the comparative certainty of reaching a 

 goal already proved attainable to the zest of a new and doubtful 

 adventure. It was in this respect that he differed most from 

 the average modern mountaineer, to whom the climb itself is the 

 main object, and the exertion its own reward. 



Before with de Saussure we leave the mountains and turn to 

 trace his share in the troubles and disasters of the revolutionary 

 epoch at Geneva, many of my readers will, I believe, be glad to 

 peruse in his own words the statement of the main aim of his life 

 and travels given at the beginning and end of the Voyages by their 

 author. I shall therefore append here a translation of a great part 

 of the Preface, as well as of the Epilogue and Note he supplied at 

 the close of his great work. Their pages set out better than any 

 comment of mine can the spirit in which de Saussure travelled, 

 his genuine love of the Alps, his passion for science, and the 

 strong human sympathies which led him to appreciate so warmly 

 yet with so much discrimination the qualities of the mountain 

 peasantry. The ' Discours Preliminaire ' supplies the best portrait, 

 or outline, of the man and the philosopher, while the ' Coup d'CEil 

 General ' and the final Note by their incompleteness bear witness 

 to the physical failure which forced him to leave to others the 

 completion of his life's work. 



