BONNET AND HALLER 419 



gentle and deep glow which penetrates and warms you and seems to 

 lift you to the level of the speaker. If he felt his superiority and 

 how could he not be conscious of it ? at least he never asserted it 

 offensively; he listened to objections with the greatest patience, 

 cleared up ambiguities, and never assumed a trenchant and dictatorial 

 air, unless on any question which touched on morals or religion. The 

 week I passed with him [in 1764] left on my mind ineffaceable impres- 

 sions ; his conversation fired me with the love of study and of all 

 that is good and honest ; I passed the nights in thinking over and com- 

 mitting to paper what he had said during the day. I separated from 

 him with the deepest regret, and our intimate relations ended only 

 with his premature death.' [Voyages, 1094.] 



Haller's summary comment on this visit was conveyed 

 in a letter to Bonnet : ' I talked too much to your 

 nephew.' Was there not a touch of Dr. Johnson in the Swiss 

 philosopher ? 



De Saussure's impression was shared by other visitors . Haller's 

 fellow-countryman, Bonstetten, wrote : ' Haller was tall, well 

 made, and, despite his stoutness, had dignity. Nothing could be 

 finer than his glance, which was at once penetrating and sympa- 

 thetic. Genius shone in his fine eyes. Of all the men I have 

 known he was the most intellectual and the most amiable ; his 

 vast knowledge had the charm of impromptu. He spent his time, 

 as a rule, in his large library, where he was always to be found 

 alone and writing.' Haller had many children, with whom he 

 seems to have occupied himself but little. In Bonstetten's 

 Souvenirs there is an amusing reference to the tall girls with 

 holes in their stockings, whom as a boy he used frequently to 

 see climbing on the rocks like chamois and darting in and out 

 of the Chateau at Roche, but never succeeded in making friends 

 with. 



Similar tributes might be quoted from other contemporaries ; 

 but I cannot omit the remarkable one paid by Gibbon in 

 his Journal : ' I am little interested in a work on botany, but 

 very much in Mr. Haller. This universal genius unites the fire 

 of poetry with the sagacity and discernment of the philosopher : 

 his natural abilities are equal to his acquired knowledge. His 

 memory is retentive to a degree almost miraculous.' He goes on, 

 however, 'With all his admirers, Haller has few friends. Where- 



