Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-03-21
Geneva.

worlds history have lived around this
spot, attracted hither by all this glory
OF nature, this varied majesty of Alp
and lake. Caesar, Calvin, Knox, Mil
ton, Gibbon, Rousseau, Madame de
Stael, Byron and Napoleon, are among
the hosts who, with all their diversities
of tastes and intellectual powers, have
here tasted the sweets Of repose in
Goods first temples" They have
passed away, and in the presence, as it
were, of their names, l cannot but re-
call the inscription upon an old Roman
tombstone near the house of Madame
de Stael, viz: Viri ut piris; morieris
ut sam mortuus sic rita traditur rale
ciatlr Ell abb in rem tuan." I" l have
lived as you live; you will die as I
have died thus life passes by; fare
we'll, travellers, aud 60 thou to thy bus
mess" Ancients and moderns have
alike lived and died here, and Byron
has we'll embodied their experiences as
we'll as his own, in the we'll known lines:
"Clear, placid Leman thy contrasted lake
With the wild world dwelt in, is thing
Which warns me, with its stiffness, to forsake
Esrth's troubled waters for purer spring.
This quiet sail is as a nOiseless wing
To watt me from distraction"
The Rhone flowing from the southern
end of the lake, divides the city into
two parts, and half mile below it
unites with the Arve, a turbid and mud
dy stream right from the glaciers of
Mount Blanc. Both rivers flow on dis
tinct and separate currents for con-
siderable distance, but at length their
waters intermingle, and-significant les
SON they are no longer clear and
bright, like the Rhone, but turbid, like
the Arve nor does the Rhone regain
its sparkling purity till lost in the sea.
There is one name famous in history
l did not mention among those who
have lived in or near Geneva-V oltaire.
We walked the other day to his chateau
in Ferney, which is five miles distant
and Just over the border in France.
This place of twelve hundred inhabi-
tants was called together at first by his
gepius-a fact they have recently recog-
nized by placing, as centenary me-
mortal, bust in bronze of their bene-
factor upon the village fountain, whence
he looks upon passing people and events
with the same sinister smile he ever
wore in life-a fitting expression fixed
in bronze of man who, for sixty years
laughed at every body and every thing,
and who said II make life plaything,
it is fit for nothing else" A little be-
yond the village of Ferney we turned
to the left through an avenue of stately
trees leading directly to Voltaire's
house. A stone temple still stands
upon the left of the avenue near the
front enclosure, bearing upon its facade
the inscription, "Deo erexit Voltaire
the sight of which brought from one
of the young ladies of the party the ex-
clamation What !! Voltaire build a
church." A huge joke like much else
he did thought others-only meant as
a compliment to Jupiter. 1t is a. barn
now, stuffed with hay. No remains of
his theatre which stood opposite, are
visible. In the garden which COM
mands a splendid view of the surround
ing country. the lake and Mt. Blanc, is
the arbor where he wrote the tragedy
of Irene, and in which he paced to and
fro when in the heat of composition.
One wonders that he selected site so
beautiful, since he had himself so little
susceptibility to the charms of nature.
His works reveal none of it. II he
travels in Germany, it is the "sour
beer" that is chiefly noted. Or if in
the south of France, it is the bitter
ness of the olives" His Henriade, COM
posed in the freshness of young man
hood, and elaborated amid the fascinat-
ing beauty of English scenery, as one
witty said, "has not grass enough in
it to feed the horses"
The bed room and sitting room, where,
inflated with vanity. he received the
embassies of kings and emperors with
the elite of Europe, remain just as he
left them. On entering, our eye first
rested upon the mausoleum designed
by the Marchioness de Vilette to con-
tain his heart. It bears the Inscription
in French, His spirit is everywhere,
his heart is here" On the walls of the
sitting room were art pictures, "suige-
neris." In the bed room were portraits
of Frederick the Great and of the EN-
press Catherine of Prussia presented by
herself, and picture of herself en-
broidered by her own hand. Among
numerous engravings, OF Diderot, d
Alembert, Condorcet, and others. I
noticed our Franklin and Washington
as q young man holding parchment of
the Declaration of Independence"
Here are the chairs, the bed, the lounge,
the fireplace with screen, shovel and
tongs, as used by Voltaire more than
century ago. Here the rooms that
echoed to the laughter and hilarity of
fifty guests at time-all quiet enough
now. The restless spirit, that was the
center of this scene, and stirred this
whole region with his witticisms and
sarcasms upon their religion, and boast
ed that he was corrupting the whole
youth of the pedantic city Of Geneva"
may indeed be here still in grim retri-
button, as his mausoleum boasts esprit
tomJours." For residents and natives
tell us that the influences of his life
here are frightful, and that the unwrit-
ten works of Voltaire are producing
evil fruits in endless profusion. Calvin
had been in his grave two hundred
years when Voltaire appeared in Geneva
to SOW tares among his descendants.
He found them asleep, or 30 far degen-
Grated from the strictness of their
fathers, "a to fall an easy prey to his
wiles. The simple.hearted Genevese,