400 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



nowhere more essential than in science. In support of this now 

 much contested position she was able to quote her father's pre- 

 cepts and example. She could herself read Greek and Latin, as 

 well as English, German, and Italian. As was to be expected, 

 Madame Necker-de Saussure is at her best in her last volume, which 

 deals with the education of her own sex. Here she offers a dis- 

 criminating analysis of the weaknesses to which the female mind 

 is most inclined, and a judicious criticism of the lack of any 

 adequate attempt to control or combat them in the home circles 

 of her time. With advancing years she insists more and more 

 on the part of religion in life. 



I have done my best to set down the impression made on a 

 foreign reader of our own day by IS Education Progressive. In 

 doing so I have perhaps failed to do justice to Madame Necker-de 

 Saussure's volumes. Let me in fairness conclude by quoting the 

 high eulogy passed on them by a distinguished critic, her fellow- 

 countryman Amiel, in one of the last pages of his Journal (vol. ii. 

 p. 288) : 



'Je relis Mme. Necker-de Saussure; U Education Progressive, est 

 un oeuvre admirable. Quelle mesure, quelle justesse, quelle raison, 

 quelle gravit6 ! Que cela est bien observe, bien pense, et bien 6crit. 

 Ce livre est un beau livre, un traite classique, et Geneve pent etre fiere 

 d'une production qui resume une si haute culture et une ei solide sagesse. 

 Voil& la vraie litterature genevoise, la tradition centrale du pays. 



' Achev6 le troisieme volume de Mme. Necker. C'est beau, grave, 

 sens6, delicat, parfait. Quelques asperites ou incorrections de langage 

 ne comptent pas. On eprouve pour Pauteur un respect mele d'atten- 

 drissement et Ton s'ecrie, " Livre rare ou tout est sincere et ou tout 

 est vrai ! " 



M. Ernest Naville, formerly Professor of Philosophy at Geneva, 

 who knew Madame Necker-de Saussure well, bears equally strong 

 testimony to her merits, declaring that in her great book ' she 

 left a luminous trace of her passage through life.' 



Madame Necker-de Saussure had four children, two sons and 

 two daughters. Her elder son inherited the tastes of his maternal 

 grandfather. He was introduced to the glaciers at an early age. 

 There was an entry in the old book of the Montenvers : 



' Louis Necker, ag6 de douze ans et demi, et petit-fils de M. de 

 Saussure, accompagne de sa soeur ag6e de onze ans, est mont4 au 



