408 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



what makes him the more admirable is that he owes what he is 

 not to nature, but to his philosophy.' Bonnet's letter of invita- 

 tion to de Miiller has been preserved, and is a perfect model of 

 delicate consideration for the recipient of a substantial benefit 

 whom it is desired may feel himself a welcome guest. 



For his physical inertia the infirmities which grew with years 

 gave Bonnet sufficient excuse, apart from the fact that his wife, 

 soon after their marriage, was permanently injured in a carriage 

 accident, and became an invalid. Easy-going, too kind-hearted to 

 cherish a grudge against his opponents, though not at all incapable 

 on occasion of a smart retort, such is the picture we get of this 

 amiable philosopher. If Voltaire jeers at his dullness, if he calls 

 him a dreamer and his Palingenesie a collection of idle pleas- 

 antries, Bonnet is not slow to reply by labelling his assailant as 

 ' the shop-boy of science, who treats the outside world as he 

 does his Bible,' and telling him that he criticises ' Locke, whom 

 he has never read, and Leibnitz, whom he cannot understand.' 

 Yet Bonnet's resentment was apt to be short-lived. On another 

 occasion he writes : ' An unlooked-for chance brought Voltaire 

 to my country home. I had not seen him for six years. He came 

 to talk to one of my neighbours about the unhappy affair of the 

 Galas. There is no denying he has done a number of humane 

 acts, and this one ought to make me forgive him many extrava- 

 gances.' Bonnet shows the same charity towards Rousseau, whom 

 he looked on as a dangerous demagogue. He dismisses him in a 

 sentence of singular generosity : ' If all those who have played a 

 part on the theatre of life were to make confessions as frank, 

 should we find them less guilty or less degraded than Jean Jacques? 

 How many would there be who would be found lighter in the 

 scales of Eternal Justice ? ' 



This is the uncle whom de Saussure gained at the age of 

 sixteen. With so many points of sympathy, there was one of 

 marked difference between them. They approached nature from 

 a very different angle. The uncle's pursuits lay in the minute 

 and animate ; the nephew's in the opposite direction. Bonnet 

 never took any account of mountains, and only showed an amused 

 interest in de Saussure 's studies and exploits. De Saussure 

 ventured on occasion to write very lightly to his uncle about 

 some of Bonnet's particular theories. The one was a chamber 



