1802.] 
padictes on the concerns of us mortals, 
rom whofe unholy eyes they were veiled 
by the clouds that coiled round them. 
‘The road from Coulonges to St. Genis is 
ftrikingly grand; it holds a circuitous 
courfe midway among the wildeft rocks ; 
below is a deep and narrow vale, watered 
by the dark-blue Rhone, in its way to 
Lyons, where the Saone joins it, and 
whence the united rivers run into the Me- 
diterranean. Among thefe rocks, com- 
manding a great part of the valley, but 
itfelf commanded by fuperior eminences, 
{tands the fortrefs, which, till lately, di- 
vided France from the independent repub- 
lic of Genéve. Fort de ’Eclufe is now 
garrifoned by French foldiers, to whom 
we fhewed our paflports, and who fuffer- 
ed us to proceed without any delay, fo 
that we paffed the draw-bridge of Genéve, 
at between five and fix o’clock, on Friday, 
the 18th, having been nine days on our 
journey from Paris. 
Tuefday, 22.—You will have juf rea- 
fon to accufe me of indolence, if Ido not 
" give you fome account of this delightful 
{pot, and communicate all the information 
I can colle& refpecting the manners, cuf- 
toms, &c. of the people: but my letter 
is already fo long, that 1 dare not begin a 
fubje&t which muft neceflarily oceupy much 
room; you muft wait with patience, my 
good friend, till I have opportunity to be- 
gin another fheet. Jt will not be fair, how- 
ever, to delay fora moment to inform you, 
that we have experienced here the moft flat- 
tering reception: there is an opennefs and 
generofity depicted on the countenances of 
the Gevevans, which form avery favour- 
able. and obvious diftinftion between them 
and their neighbours on the other fide 
of Fort de PEclufe; and Front: sulla 
fides, thall not be my motto, at any rate, 
tillI am anolder man. 
In confequence of M. Parregaux let- 
ter of introduction, immediately on our 
arrival we called on M. Heutfch, who re- 
ceived us with much politenefs, and intro- 
duced us to M. and Madame Odier. This 
‘latter gentleman is a phyfician and pro- 
feflor of medicine of much eminence: he 
received his medical education at Edin- 
burgh, and {peaks Englifh with much flu- 
ency, and with the moft grammatical cor- 
reCtnefs. When Bonaparte was at Ge- 
néve, Dr. Odier was in company with him 
two or three times, and he expreffed.to me 
shisaflonifhment atthe variety of knowledge 
which the Firft Conful difplayed: what- 
ever fubject was brought before him, phy- 
fics, morals, natural philofophy, chemif- 
tery, phyfiology, Bonaparte converfed on 
An Excurfion through France to Geneva. 
O28 
each of thefe fubjects.as if he had made it 
one of the principal ftudies of hislifed He 
had inveftigated the nature ef the difeafes 
of his army in Egypt, and difcufled thena 
like a profeffional man: when he was ow 
the eve of crofling the Alps with his 
army, an achievement before which, if 
we confider the incumbrance of cannen, 
the famed paflage of Hannibal mutt lof 
half its difficulties, Bonaparte converfed 
on indifferent fubjecis with the fame calm- 
ne(s and fang-froid, that he would have 
done, had he been merely going from the 
Tuilleries to Mal-maifon. No man fure- 
ly ever profited more by the Horatian ad= 
vice, 
Equam memento rebus in arduis 
Servare mentem. 
You will not infer, from this voluntary 
acknowledgment of the aftonifhing capa~ 
city and mental acquirements of an andi~ 
vidual, that the French natton is refpec- 
ed here, or that that individual himflf, ia 
his political charaéter, is an objeét of 
efteem. Truly, no. The Genevans hate 
the French: thefe latter are invariably de- 
tefted, abhorred, abominated, and—you 
may complete the fentence with any other 
word, if you can find one more expreffive. 
of antipathy. To the Englifh, on the 
contrary, they are extremely attached; 
at any rate, they pretend'to be fo5 anda ~ 
compliment is certainly due to their pe- 
litenefs, even if it be at the expence ef their 
fincerity : we are the firft.who have ar- 
rived here fince the fignature of the preli- 
minaries, and it is dificult to form a con~ 
ception of the delight which every one _ 
feems to feel who knows where we coine 
from: they receive us with the cordiality 
of an old friend, whofe intimacy had, by 
fome untoward accident, been fufpended, 
rather than with the fhynefs of a ftranger, 
who had never heard of us before. The 
Genevans feem to be proud of what little 
fimilarity exifts between their manners and 
thofe of the Englifh, and exprefs them- 
felves heartily folicitous that a free inter- 
courfe may take place between us; this 
kindnefs on their part has doubtlefs ex- 
cited a reciprocal prejudice (for, in the 
firiét fenfe of the word, it certainly is a 
prejudice) on.our’s. This day, at a din- 
ner at M. Je Cointe’s, where about twenty 
ladies and gentlemen were feated at table, 
one of the company, in compliment to us, 
fent round a bumper to the health of King 
George: had we been in France, our po- 
litenefs would certainly have prompted us 
to have returned the civility, by drinking 
@ bumper to the Fir Coniol; but, in the 
prefent 
, 
