320 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



himself with securing official support. His social and practical 

 spirit was shown not only in inviting ladies to become patronesses 

 and attend the meetings, but also in arranging for more friendly 

 and informal gatherings, which were cheered by tea and coffee and 

 enlightened by the first appearance of the once famous Argand lamp. 



In the next year (1787) the original Journal de Geneve made 

 its appearance as the organ of the Society. It announced as its 

 object the publication of whatever local news might be useful to its 

 readers. Births, deaths, and marriages, elections, new laws and 

 regulations, prices in the market, fill its columns. There is a 

 whole front page (here we note the hand of de Saussure) of meteoro- 

 logical observations. The first number appeared on the day of his 

 return to Chamonix from Mont Blanc ; the second contained a 

 short account of his ascent. In the following issues we find it 

 acting as the Journal of the ' Societe des Arts ' in the stricter sense 

 of the word, reporting its proceedings and the papers read before 

 it. It died after five years, in the troublous days of the Revolution, 

 to be definitely born again as a newspaper in the modern sense in 

 1830. It has flourished ever since, and is now one of the best 

 daily papers on the Continent. 



The 'Societe des Arts' survived and still prospers. The 

 story of its achievements and the list of its possessions, its 

 benefactors, and its officers have been recently issued in a 

 handsome volume. 1 Its rooms contain considerable collections, 

 among which is the official portrait of de Saussure, painted a few 

 years before his death by Saint-Ours. 



We have transgressed chronological order in order to complete 

 the story of de Saussure's connection with the ' Societ6 des Arts ' 

 and the Journal de Geneve. 



In 1775 health was again a matter of anxiety with de 

 Saussure, and he was prescribed for by Dr. Tronchin. 



' One word more,' the genial doctor writes, ' to you whose health 

 is so precious to us. Use moderation in drugs. Moderate also your 

 activity and your zeal in all you undertake. Add to your virtues that 

 of bearing contradiction, even where you have least reason to expect 

 it. This virtue is far more necessary in republics than in monarchies ; 

 it is the safeguard of peace of soul and tranquillity of mind conditions 

 which perhaps are not held at their proper value in republics.' 



1 La Sociiti des Arts et see Collections, par J. Crosnier (Geneva, 1910). 



