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 respect. 



If, without departing from the ranks of the most honorable philan- 

 thropy, I had wished to seek for an example of the most striking 

 contrast to Mr. Simond, I should have found it in the person of his 

 friend and my own, Charles Victor de Bonstetten, 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 

 society. He was intimately attached to Charles Bonnet, who always 

 designated him in his correspondence with Haller, by the name of 

 Telemachus. He acquired in the conversation of this able and be- 

 nevolent Mentor, a strong taste for psychology, which afterwards laid 

 the foundation of some of his works. 



It may be doubted whether a direction so opposite to the natural 

 disposition of Bonstetten, contributed to his success. Endowed with 

 an imagination, lively, active and quite poetical, with a heart acces- 

 sible to all the feelings of benevolence, love and friendship, he 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 bailliages, and 

 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 republic. His ar- 

 dent love of justice and humanity, his amiable disposition, the grace- 

 fulness of his manners and conversation, easily obtained for himj 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 



