BE SAUSSURE IN SCIENCE AND LITERATURE 425 



erate purpose to refrain from basing any theory on his observations. 

 It is clear from the concluding words of the ' Avertissement ' in the 

 third volume of the Voyages ,* from passages in the fourth volume 

 of the Voyages, and also from de Saussure's private letters and 

 memoranda about 1796, that in his intention it was only a post- 

 ponement. Had his labours not been interrupted by political 

 troubles, or had his life attained its full span, he would have 

 carried out, in part at any rate, his scheme, and have put forward 

 as an outline of a History of the Earth conclusions drawn from his 

 accumulated facts. In any criticism of his work it has to be borne 

 in mind that at fifty-four, when he might have hoped for twenty, 

 or at least ten, years of leisure to arrange and consider his material, 

 he was struck down by successive strokes of paralysis. The last 

 two volumes of his Voyages were issued after a second and more 

 severe seizure, and after his fortune as well as his health had 

 been shattered by the great convulsion of the French Revolution 

 and the consequences it brought on Geneva. There is, therefore, 

 a pathetic interest in the sixty pages of ' Agenda, ou Tableau 

 General des Observations et des Recherches dont les resultats 

 doivent servir de base d la Theorie de la Terre,' appended to the 

 last volume of the Voyages. 2 They form de Saussure's bequest to 

 posterity, and it is a bequest which posterity is far from having 

 exhausted. Of the problems he presented many doubtless have 

 long ago received their solution, but there are still not a few which 

 await a further and conclusive investigation. Nor were these 

 Agenda his only effort in the direction of making use of his material. 

 In 1796 he wrote to the astronomer La Place : ' I am going to 

 work at a Theory of the Earth now that I have ended my travels. 

 Well satisfied if I can explain the physical story of our globe, I 

 shall leave the problem of its formation to those, like yourself, 

 whose genius embraces the plan of the universe.' A memoran- 

 dum of the same date which has been preserved and quoted by 



1 * As to the theory, I have in this volume followed the same method as in the 

 preceding ones. I have set down principles in so far as I have found facts on 

 which to base them. But for the scheme I put off publication. I wait for the 

 completion of observations I have in contemplation, which I need in order to 

 enable me to decide on questions that appear to me still doubtful.' 



* Published also in the Journal des Mines, iv. (No. 20), in 1796, pp. 1-20, and 

 in the Philosophical Magazine for 1799, iii. pp. 33-41, 147-156 ; iv. pp. 188-190, 

 259-263, 351 and 359 ; v. pp. 24-29, 135-140, 217-221. It was also published 

 separately at Geneva. 



