454 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



return. His letters to his wife remained love-letters even after 

 their silver-wedding day ; he was adored by his children, two 

 of whom were inspired by his example . He made friends wherever 

 he went, in Paris and England as well as at Geneva. He was, it is 

 obvious, fond of society and played a prominent part in it. Full 

 of human sympathies, an interested spectator of the game of life, 

 he was himself an interesting member of whatever circle he found 

 himself in, whether the salons of Paris, or the country houses of 

 England, or the cottages of the peasantry of the Alps. 



The Upper Town of Geneva at that date was, as we have 

 seen, much divided into clubs and coteries, and its social habits 

 and bent of mind were apt to be found formal and stiff by 

 visitors from the Seine. De Saussure was free from this 

 provincialism still less had he of the proverbial dryness of a 

 professor ; his science was happily mixed with sentiment. He 

 enjoyed conversation, and seems soon to have overcome his 

 youthful shyness. I have quoted (p. 103) his avowal of ' a 

 passion for all ladies at once charming and interested in natural 

 science,' and the great ladies, attracted and perhaps a little 

 piqued by the agreeable young philosopher, protested in their 

 letters that they returned a sentiment which in his case seems 

 never to have gone beyond friendship. Perhaps the most vivid 

 sketch of de Saussure in society is one given in a note written 

 to him about 1790 by Madame Necker : 



' It is not without real regret that I give up the hope of seeing 

 you this evening. You must be conscious of the charm which you 

 carry with you in our circle ; everyone feels its influence, but no 

 one perhaps as much as I do. Often while listening to you and letting 

 myself be carried away by the gentle gaiety which graces all you say, 

 I forget Paris, or rather I feel I have found a reflection of it which is 

 better than the original.' 



At the same time, like most people who enjoy social inter- 

 course, he had a considerable capacity for social suffering, and he 

 did not suffer boredom gladly. He was constitutionally impatient 

 of irrelevant or unsound criticism, whether in speech or writing. 

 When he was really annoyed he drew off the gloves and hit out 

 straight at any unlucky opponent, such as J. A. Deluc, or the 

 German who asserted glacier movement to be an impossibility. 

 Companionable as he seems to have been, he made many of his 



