358 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT BE SAUSSURE 



This statesmanlike proposal, according to a contemporary 

 chronicler, ' gave pain to many of the patricians, coming as it did 

 from one of their own body.' De Saussure's action on this occa- 

 sion is correctly appreciated by M. Fazy , the historian quoted above . 

 He writes : ' The Professor showed a wise and far-seeing mind : he 

 heard the storm grumbling in France, and he recognised that the 

 repercussion would soon be felt. His aim was to forestall by 

 opportune measures the revolution of which he recognised the 

 premonitory symptoms. But the Great Council was incapable of 

 any energetic action in the sense of reform.' De Saussure's pro- 

 posal was two months later politely shelved, though a majority of 

 the members was in favour of it. The Syndics Were charged not 

 to suggest improvements on the Edict of the previous year, but 

 to prepare a new code. The result of their labours proved so un- 

 popular, that in November 1790 a committee of twelve, of which 

 de Saussure was a member, was, after all, appointed. 



I must interrupt here the political story for a moment to note 

 that in January 1791 de Saussure, after delays caused by the 

 strained relations between the King and the academical authorities, 

 was elected one of the eight Foreign Members of the French 

 Academy of Sciences. His friend and enthusiastic admirer, 

 Madame de Montesson, the widow of the scientific Due d' Orleans, 

 the father of Philippe Egalite, interested herself deeply in his can- 

 didature, and wrote agitated letters telling him of the various 

 obstacles that had to be surmounted. 



In the course of the summer de Saussure paid a short visit to 

 the Brisgau, which furnished material for a geological pamphlet. 



The next four years were to be a period of continual broils. 

 An improvised administration with no force at its disposal capable 

 of enforcing law and order was confronted by irresponsible bodies, 

 the so-called Clubs, which had sprung into renewed life, while the 

 ' Egaliseurs,' or anarchists, of Geneva were bent on imitating on a 

 small scale the excesses of the rabble of Paris apes imitating 

 tigers, Madame de Stael called them. Madame Necker expressed, 

 less epigrammatically, the same opinion : ' We have left Geneva ; 

 this little city follows in everything in the footsteps of France, 

 and pygmies excite only contempt when they imitate the terrible 

 gestures of Briarean giants. This criminal parody is destroying, 

 perhaps for ever, a city once so flourishing ; fortunes are being 



