The Yale expositor., 1919-06-26


The Rome of the Caesars
and of the POpes, which held
pre-eminence in this respect for many
eyes, now yields to Geneva. which,
since John Calvin's time, has been call
ed ''the Protestant Rome" writes Irv-
ing X. Bacon in the Detroit Free Press.
Geneva is to be the capital of the
league Of nations, which is but another
way of saying the capital of the world.
Thus the peace conference at Paris
has decided.
In the middle Of the nineteenth CEN
fury, when, under the quasi-dictator-
ship Of James Fazy. the radicals of
the Swiss canton Geneva spent money
with almost reckless extravaganza to
develop and modernize the city, de la
Rive, a conservative, exclaimed:
'They want to make Geneva the
smallest of the great cities; oh, that
they would only allow her TO remain
the greatest of the small cities ~
And now, seventy years after he
expressed this wish, it is about to he
realized; for from now on it is there
that the parliament of nations will hold
its sessions and the roads from all
ends of earth will focus there.
The census of 1911 gave Geneva in
the neighborhood of 10000 inhabi-
tantS divided almost evenly between
Protestants and Catholics. In point OF
languages the French preponderated
nearly seven to one as compared with
German.
On Beautiful Lake Leman.
The city is the southwesternmost
point of Switzerland. 1t is on the pic
turesque Lake Leman (called also Lake
Geneva), and is divided into halves,
the old and the new towns. by the
River Rhone. The number seven fig
uros geographically in Geneva as II
does in Rome. The latter city has
seven hills; Geneva, seven bridges.
Geneva, however, is Of but recent
date compared with Rome. 1t was lit
tie more than a village of the Allo-
broges, q Gallo tribe, when Rome was
mistress of the world. Julius Caesar
took his stand there when he heard
that the Helvetians (the Swiss Of to-
day. had decided to emigrate from
their own country, which they had
come to consider as too cramplng for
their national growth.
"They shall not pass" was Caesars
watchword. And two-thlrds of the
Helsetian people persisted in a futile
attempt TO force their passage through
the Roman provinces. 1t was the be-
ginning of the Gallo war. which lasted
nine years and became the fulcrum by
which Caesar raised himself to the pO-
sition of dictator of virtually the whole
civilized world.
Birthplace of Rousseau.
Few cities have produced so many
illustrious sons or been the arena for
the activity of so many great men as
Geneva. Jean Jacques Rousseau was
born there. And 1t is no small coin
cidence that the city of his birth should
have been chosen as the capital of
league of nations Of a demOcratized
world. For to no other one man does
democracy owe a greater debt than to
Rousseau. His pen was the fail
which first set thrones a-tottering.
Kingcraft began to decay beneath the
corroding assaults of reason which he
leveled at the "divine rights" upon
which royal prerogatlves were based.
Lord Byron's noble tribute to both
Geneva and Rousseau constitutes al
most the entire theme of the third
canto of his magnificent "Childe
Harold"
The same great poet has also cele-
brated the misfortunes of another Cen
evan in the well-known poem of 1.-THE
Prisoner of Chillon."
Chillon is a castle on top OF n crag
which rises perpendicularly nearly l.
0OO feet above Lake Leman. Here,
early in the fifteenth century. Francois
de Downward, prior of st. Victor, was
imprisoned.
Where Calvin Ruled.
In 1882 William Favell, a Protes-
tant preacher from Dauphine, who had
just won Vaud, Swiss canton, to
Professionalism. made his appearance at
Geneva. His success was so consider
able that he established his home there
and In the following year, Geneva en-
tered into closer religious relations
with the Swiss city of Berne. which
had embraced Professionalism. Frihourg,
which remained Loyal to Its old faith.