Volume III Part 70 (1/2)

At ten o'clock the Mayor of Thun was announced He was dressed in the French fashi+on, in black, and had a raceful and polite that pleased ed, and enjoyed a considerable position in the Governni had written to hi that I told him that if it had not been sealed I should not have had the face to deliver it He asked me for the next day to a supper composed of men only, and for the day after that, to a supper at which women as well as men would be present I ith him to the library whereM Felix, an unfrockedood proe in the literary world I also had thehere a very learned man of a very wearisome kind; he knew the naed to listen to hinorant of his science Aold I replied that all great rivers contained gold, but he shrugged his shoulders and did not seem convinced

I dined with M de Muralt in couished women in Berne I liked them very well, and above all Madame de Saconai struck me as particularly amiable and well-educated

I should have paidin the so-called capital of Switzerland

The ladies of Berne are well though not extravagantly dressed, as luxury is forbidden by the laws Their ood and they speak French with perfect ease They enjoy the greatest liberty without abusing it, for in spite of gallantry decency reigns everywhere The husbands are not jealous, but they require their wives to be home by supper-ti divided between hty-five who interested e of chemistry She had been intimately connected with the celebrated Boerhaave, and she shewed old he had transmuted in her presence from copper I believed as much as I liked of this, but she assured me that Boerhaave possessed the philosopher's stone, but that he had not discovered the secret of prolonging life many years beyond the century Boerhaave, however, was not able to apply this knowledge to himself, as he died of a polypus on the heart before he had attained the age of perfect maturity, which Hypocrates fixes at between sixty and seventy years The four hter, if they do not prove that he could old, certainly prove that he could save it The worthy old woiven her a manuscript in which the whole process was explained, but that she found it very obscure

”You should publish it,” said I

”God forbid!”

”Burn it, then”

”I can't make up my mind to do so”

M de Muralt took h by the citizens of Berne, who are all soldiers, and I asked hiate of the town The Geriven its name to the town and canton which rank second in the Republic, although it is in the first place for its wealth and culture It is a peninsula formed by the Aar, which rises near the Rhine The mayor spoke to me of the power of the canton, its lordshi+ps and bailiwicks, and explained his oers; he then described the public policy, and told overnment which compose the Helvetic Union

”I understand perfectly well,” I said, ”that each of the thirteen cantons has its own government”

”I daresay you do,” he replied, ”but what you don't understand any more than I do is, that there is a canton which has four separate governments”

I had an excellent supper with fourteen or fifteen senators There were no jokes, no frivolous conversation, and no literature; but law, the commonweal, commerce, political econo liberty to life, in abundance

I felt as if I were in a new ele a man amidst men ere all in honour to our coid republicans began to expand, the discourse becahter, owing to the wine I excited their pity, and though they praised sobriety they thought mine excessive However, they respected e me to drink, as the Russians, Swedes, Poles, and ht--a very late hour in Switzerland, and as they wished ht, each of them made me a sincere offer of his friendshi+p One of the coun to getthe Grisons, but on his intellect being enlightened by Bacchus he ht to know its own interests better than strangers, and everybody should be allowed to do what he wills with his own”

When I got hoave her a hundred caresses in witness of ratitude I considered her as ht of separating to enter our minds

When two lovers love each other in all freedo I got a letter froed me to call on Madaeneral This lady had co cured of a disease which had disfigured her in an incredible manner

Madame de la Saone was immediately introduced to all the best society in the place She gave a supper every day, only asking iven notice that she would pay no calls, and she was quite right I hastened to ood Heavens! what a terrible and ht did I behold!

I sao voluptuously upon a couch As soon as she sawback to her couch invited me to sit beside her

She doubtless noticedprobably accustoht of her created, she talked on in thediminished my aversion

Her appearance was as follows: Madame de Saone was beautifully dressed, and had the whitest hands and the roundest arined

Her dress, which was cut very low, allowed htened by two rosy buds; her figure was good, and her feet the smallest I have ever seen All about her inspired love, but when one's eyes turned to her face every other feeling gave way to those of horror and pity She was fearful Instead of a face, one saw a blackened and disgusting scab No feature was distinguishable, and her ugliness was made more conspicuous and dreadful by two fine eyes full of fire, and by a lipless mouth which she kept parted, as if to disclose ts of teeth of dazzling whiteness She could not laugh, for the pain caused by the contraction of the muscles would doubtless have drawn tears to her eyes; nevertheless she appeared contented, her conversation was delightful, full of wit and huht be thirty at thechildren behind in Paris Her husband was a fine, well-made man, who loved her tenderly, and had never slept apart froe as this, but it is to be supposed that he did not carry his bravery so far as to kiss her, as the very thought made one shudder A disorder contracted after her first child-bed had left the poor woman in this sad state, and she had borne it for ten years All the best doctors in France had tried in vain to cure her, and she had come to Berne to put herself into the hands of tell-known physicians who had promised to do so Every quack makes promises of this sort; their patients are cured or not cured as it happens, and provided that they pay heavily the doctor is ready enough to lay the fault, not on his ignorance, but at the door of his poor deluded patient

The doctor caent conversation was an to take his remedies, which were partly composed ofhas increased since I have taken your medicines”