Cheraw gazette. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1835-1838, 1837-06-28
SWITZERLAND.

the Baltimore Literary and Religious
Magazine.
Almost opposite to Coppct, on the other
shore of the lake, Geneva, and in full view,
is the house where Lord Byron resided, and
in which he wrote the third canto Of Chllde
Harold, the Manfred, and the prisoner OF
Chillion. The scene ofhe last poem is LAID
at the chateau of that name, on the shore
near the upper end Of this lake, and the pr'n-
cipal incidents are true. They belong TO
the life, sutferings, and heroic efforts OF
Francis Bonnivoid, the defender of'he ber-
" Of Geneva, who !anguished six years,
chained 10 a rock in the dungeons ofChlllon.
Bvron was attended during his residence
here, by the poet Shelly, and the novelist
Monk Lewis. | think none OF the party
produced any kind impression on the Gene
vcse. The house he occupied is PLAIN
stone ediicc, on the lake shore, just above
COLONY, and was vacant when saw It ]
had zone into the country for another pur-
pose, and finding myself at the gate, walk
ed in for a moment, upon the gloomy stone
terrace. take Byron to have been one
Of the most extraordinary combinations that
has had the human shape. His poetic
genius was in modern times, altogether un-
.paralleIled. And yet his heart was cold:
stern. and bitter, and his spirit caustlc and
.capricious, to a degree that would seem
incompatible with srong perception OF
what is beautiful and lovely, and inconsis-
tent with the fervid control Of the imaglna.
ton. 1t proves that intense passion AID
profound thought, have no necessary con-
nection, with these qualities to which men
have delighted to unite them, nay, more,
that naked and alone, they may triumph in
regions appropriated to them, only when
guided and sustained by more refined and
tender impulses.
On the same side of the river as Coppe',
but nearer to Geneva, is the village ofFer.
ney. the residence and believe the domain
Of VoItairc, who made the acquisition Of it
in 1859, and lived in the chateau, if 1t de.
serve the name, till his death in ITS.
The Village is in the French territory, but
being only five or six miles from Geneva,
and the road from thence delightful, it may
be regarded as far as travellers are interest
ed in it, as an appurtenance OF that city.
Voltaire once said in derision of the Gene.
vese, that if he shook his wig he could
powder the whole republic. AT pr sent, |
believe few persons finds their way to his
mansion, except those attracted to Geneva,
by its own objects Of interest, so derlded by
the literary leviathan, in the height Of his
glory. Count Bude Of a Genevese family,
and Protestant, is the owner Of Ferney;
and another house still nearer 10 Geneva.
once occupied by Voltaire, is at present not
only owned and occupied by Momer,
but was told part of it wasappropriated to
The purposes of a magazine for Bible and
religious tracts. The succession to Vol
taire seems even more extraordinary than
that TO Gibbon.
urU I0u1Id tne Wilote
matter a very paltry affair. The house is
comfortable, and rather large country
house; the grounds prety-not more, har-
div 50 much. The boasted church which
Vol,aire built, and inscribed on the 'front.'
Dec eriit VoAaire, | found full of wood and
going TO decay. 1t was very small and
mean structure at its best days. The great
objects ofinterest are his private apartments,
which are said TO be preserved in the same
safe which he left them. These are par.
,;cularly mean. They consist of an outer
hall-on interior saloon Of a circular shape,
behind it, and small bed room on the left
ofi.. Every thing here fills one surprise
when it is remembered that this is the most
secrctc place of man of wealth and in.
conceivable vanity and pretensions, at the
very period when he was the intimate cor.
respondent Of sovcreigns, and the most
distinguished philosopher Of the world. 1t
is little miserable hole-adorned with
some bad pictures, and number Of small
and wretched engravings. Amongst these
were the heads of distinguished persons of
all countries, about half the whole bei.,g
Americans and English. Iobserved those
ofWashingon, Franklin, Newton, Milton;
those also of Lcibniz. D'Alembert Diderot,
tIelyetius, Racine, Cornelle, a potrait of the
empress Catharine, and one Of Frederick
the Grcat--and to my utter amazemcnt, a
print Of Clement XIV. Volaire did indeed,
affect universally on all subjects to know
and to be every thing was the ruling conceit
ofa soul consumed with low and evil pas.
sons. But that he whose strongest wish
was expressed in the anxious desire to see
the last Jesuit strangled in the bowels ofthe
last Molinis," and who continually sought
30 hove :. L~l:~- III .Io.. It "uo not religion,
bu. superstition which he warred against
anG the papal system as the concentration
of folly and imposture, that this same man,
shouldhang up amongst this special alfavorites,