452 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



of Philosophy, which was awarded him. " Geology," which at a later 

 date became his favourite study, was well suited to confirm his views 

 in this respect. . . . The geologist less than any other man of science 

 can doubt the place and the need for hypothesis in the pursuit of his 

 study. In the salon of the Society of Arts at Geneva there is a fine 

 portrait of de Saussure by Saint-Ours. The geologist holds in one of 

 his hands a hammer resting on the native rock ; the other grasps a frag- 

 ment of stone, but his look is upward and seeks the idea. The idea 

 discovered, he must turn to the hammer and the stone to verify it, but 

 the idea does not mount from the ground, it must descend from the 

 heights of the intellect. This portrait is a speaking symbol of the true 

 scientific method observation, theory, verification.' 1 



The general impression derived from Naville's essay is that 

 de Saussure's metaphysics were very largely mixed, as might 

 be expected, with physics. While a man of a deeply religious 

 mind, he shows very little sympathy with dogmatism. In this 

 attitude he was the inheritor of Chouet and Turrettini, whose 

 influence had done much to soften Genevese Calvinism. His 

 attempted harmonising of physiology and psychology seems to 

 have been very largely derived from Bonnet, who was far from a 

 clear thinker, and by modern lights much of it must be judged 

 obsolete. De Saussure took pains to keep his philosophy he did 

 not pretend that it was original, or endeavour to perpetuate it apart 

 from his pupils' notebooks distinct from his religion, and his 

 religion almost entirely to himself. He was, however, a resolute 

 opponent of the fashionable materialism of the century, and more 

 than once gave forcible expression to his deep sense of the value 

 of a religious faith in meeting the troubles of life. 



Even in his course of Metaphysics the practical man and the 

 scientist in de Saussure at times crop up curiously. Under the 

 head of Logic he treats of Physiology, and in describing the 

 functions of the senses, he deals with the means of keeping 

 them in good order. He recommends out-of-door exercise, tem- 

 perance in drink, and abstinence from tobacco, the solace of so 

 many modern philosophers. He even makes an excursion into 



1 E. Naville, ' La Philosophic d'Horace Benedict de Saussure,' Seances et 

 Travaux de TAcadimie des Sciences morales et politiques, vol. cxx. pp. 92, 350 ; and 

 ' Horace Benedict de Saussure et sa Philosophic d'apres des documents inedits ' 

 (Bibliotheque Universelle, Mars-Mai, 1883). The passages quoted above are given 

 by Professor Borgeaud in his Histoire de rUniversite de Gen&ve, 1900. 



