Madame de Genlis went to Geneva on purpose to call on M. de Voltaire, though she had no letter to him. He invited her to dinner, and, by a mistake, she arrived too early. She gives a very entertaining account of her experiences. One little passage is characteristic:
“What an effect the presence of such a man as Voltaire must have had on the pious Genevans may be imagined when this story was told of him. Shortly after the publication of ‘Emile,’ Voltaire was discussing Rousseau’s marvellous picture of the sunrise. ‘I must try it,’ said he. ‘I, too, will go some morning on the top of a mountain; I should like to know if one is really compelled to adore the Creator at daybreak.’ The necessary preparations were made; they set out at night and reached just before dawn the Col de la Faucille in the Jura. The sunrise was splendid.... Voltaire knelt down, gazed in silence and then said: ‘Yes, Creator of heaven and earth, I adore you before the magnificence of your works.’ ... Then getting up, he rubbed his knees and cried: ‘Mais quant à monsieur votre fils et à madame sa mère, je ne les connais pas!’
“When Rousseau heard that he became pensive and then said, ‘Oh, that man, that man, he would make me hate the page of my works which I like best.’
“When the earthquake at Lisbon shocked the whole world Pastor Vernes preached a celebrated sermon which led Voltaire to write: ‘Sir, it is said you have written such a beautiful sermon on the event that it would have been really unfortunate had Lisbon not been destroyed, for we should have been deprived of a magnificent discourse.’”
WRESTLING AT A VILLAGE FESTIVAL.
Another plan which occupied me in the hours which I consecrated to regular work was for an article on the village festivals of Switzerland:—The charming Narcissus Festival of Montreux, celebrated in May, the great Fête of the Abbé des Vignerons, so fascinatingly described by Juste Olivier and so cleverly worked by James Fenimore Cooper into his novel, “The Headsman.” It would include processions through picturesque streets and the rejoicings at the return of the cows from the Alp with the Ranz des Vaches:—
“Blantz et neìre,
Rotz et motaìle,
Dzjoùven et ôtro