374 Miscellanies. 
be adopted, but his language uniformly spoke the convictions of his 
mind, and his regard for the public welfare. He was a truly ‘good 
man, a practical philosopher, a grave and striking example, which 
reminds us of the virtues of antiquity, and commanded our r respects ; 
_ If, without departing from the ranks of the most honorable be 
thropy, I had wished to seek for an example of the most striking 
contrast to Mr. Simonp, I should have found it in the person of his 
friend and my own, Cuarves Vicror pe Bonstrrren, of whom it 
remains for me to speak. He sprang from one of the most illustri- 
ous families of Switzerland, and was born on the 3d of September, 
1745, in the highest of the patrician ranks. His father, treasurer of 
the State of Bern, and a distinguished magistrate, early perceiving 
the promising dispositions of his son, watched carefully over his pri- 
mary education, and then sent him to our city for the completion of 
his studies. “It was thus that Bonstetten became initiated into our 
- He was intimately attached to Charles Bonnet, who always 
designated him in his correspondence with Haller, by the name 
Telemachus. He acquired in the conversation of this able and be- 
nevolent Mentor, a strong taste for psychology, which — 
the foundation of some of his works. 
It may be doubted whether a direction so opposite to othe rd 
disposition of Bonstetten, contributed to bis success. Endowed with 
an imagination, lively, active and quite poetical, with a heart acces- 
sible to all the feelings of benevolence, love and friendship, be found 
himself, by his taste for metaphysics, and by the nature of the servi- 
ces in which he engaged, drawn into a field of labor, but little in 
harmony with his native feelings. He travelled, while young; into 
various countries, and formed connections with distinguished men, 
among whom he loved to name the poet Gray. On his return to 
Bern, he engaged in the administration, and filled the station of bai~ 
liff, at Gessenay and Nyon, magistrate of the Italian 
member of the Bernese council of public instruction. He brought 
into these stations a lively concern for questions of general interest, 
but little taste for the minute details with which the duties of admin 
istration are so often embarrassed, especially in a ee His ar- 
dent love of justice and humanity, his amiable disposition, the grace- 
fulness of his manners and- conversation, easily obtained for him, in 
all good minds, a pardon for his frequent fits of absence, his disre- 
gard for the superannuated forms of etiquette, and even for the gaiety 
