316 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



Frai^ois Deluc (the father of Jean Antoine, the meteorologist, and 

 one of the climbers of the Buet) took the lead at the head of a 

 deputation of fifty in presenting an address of thanks to its author. 

 Another deputation, also from the Natifs, was led by the Alpine 

 enthusiast Bourrit. The dispute had become political. De 

 Saussure was regarded by his own party as more or less of a renegade . 

 But in the Radical camp he was hailed with enthusiasm. He 

 delighted his unenfranchised visitors by greeting them as fellow- 

 citizens. D'lvernois, a Genevese democrat, who spent ten years 

 in exile in England, where he was knighted, writes in the warmest 

 terms of de Saussure 's efforts to break down social prejudices and 

 barriers and to promote close and friendly relations between all 

 classes in the State. In these efforts he was, d'lvernois tells us, 

 ably seconded by young Lord Mahon, who did his best to encourage 

 games and manly exercises among the youth of the aristocracy, 

 who appear to have fallen into sadly effeminate habits. 1 



Meantime, de Saussure was surprised, and not a little indignant, 

 at the hostile attitude of many of his friends and colleagues. He 

 sent out an answer to objectors, Eclaircissements sur le Projet de 

 Reforme pour le College de Geneve. He had, it is clear, been accused 

 of scheming, on the one hand, for his own, the leisured class ; on the 

 other, of attempting to substitute for solid learning a culture exten- 

 sive but superficial ; to abolish asound liberal and classical education 

 in favour of an inadequate technical one. He retaliated warmly : 



' Even in this century, called " The Century of Facts," it is phrases 

 that govern. Society is divided into little cabals, each of which has 

 its catchword. That which rallies the greatest number is any attack 

 on " the upper class " les Gens du Monde. At its sound all who 

 count as their chief quality misanthropy, all the envious, gather and 

 are ready to tear in pieces those thus presented to them.' 



He set aside brusquely an alternative proposal for separate 

 technical schools for the working-man. He refuted vehemently 

 the contention of those who looked on the education of the people 

 as dangerous to society. He treated with scorn the economical 

 objectors who were frightened at the probable cost of carrying 

 out his scheme. The world is divided into two sections those 

 whose minds instinctively turn first to the objections to any change 



1 See Tableau historique et politique des Revolutions de Geneve dans le dix- 

 huitieme Siede (Geneva, 1782), and p. 318. 



