BONNET AND HALLER 407 



country-house at Genthod, on the slope above and within a few 

 hundred yards of the Lullin property which was subsequently 

 the country residence of de Saussure. Here he spent a life of com- 

 parative seclusion, content to be an interested and at times agitated 

 spectator of the political storms that raged in the neighbouring 

 city, and unmoved by any curiosity to explore the hills that looked 

 down on his home , or the greater world beyond . His only reported 

 excursion was a visit to Haller at Roche, at the other end of the 

 lake. But he was no recluse, and was always ready to receive 

 and hold interesting converse with the visitors his fame brought 

 to him. We get a glimpse of him in the travels of Sir J. Edward 

 Smith, the founder of the Linnsean Society. After recording a 

 visit of a few minutes only to de Saussure, who had just returned 

 from Mont Blanc, our countryman goes on, 'But the most illus- 

 trious philosopher of Geneva, Mr. Bonnet, must not be forgotten. 

 He received me with the greatest kindness, and although almost 

 deprived of sight and hearing, he conversed long and most instruc- 

 tively on his favourite subjects.' 



Bonnet was frank and incapable of taking offence, modest in 

 putting forward his own views, and patient in listening to those of 

 others. Trembley, the mathematician, his friend as well as de 

 Saussure's, thus describes him : ' The works of celebrated men are 

 often the best parts of them ; those who knew M. Bonnet felt how 

 much superior he was to his works. His conversation was as 

 agreeable as it was instructive. His memory recalled at the right 

 moment whatever was pertinent to the subject under discussion, 

 and he elucidated it without pretence or display. He knew how 

 to make himself understood by the young, to seize the general 

 ideas that might be serviceable to them, to direct their activity 

 without controlling it ; he made them feel their failings without 

 humiliation, and encouraged them without making them conceited.' 



Another witness to Bonnet's kindness of heart is the historian, 

 Jean de Miiller, a friend of Bonstetten. At a time when he had 

 fallen out of his post as a tutor in the Tronchin family, and was 

 at a loss for a home, he was received as a guest by Bonnet at 

 Genthod. After describing at length his relations with his host, 

 de Miiller concludes in the following terms : ' Bonnet seemed to 

 me almost divine. I have never met either in life or in history 

 a truer philosopher or a nobler or more amiable character, and 



