s from ten
to twenty years behind the intellectual and moral development of the
people. The Swiss papers and other periodicals are few in number,
compared with those of neighbouring nations. Most of them are controlled
by quite a small group of persons, and nearly every one of them serves
to express the prejudices, the interests, and the routinism of
middle-aged or elderly persons. Among such as are prominent in this
journalistic world, even those who are spoken of as young, if they ever
have been young in mind, are now so only in the eyes of their elders, of
elders who refuse to admit that they have grown old.... "Young man, hold
your tongue," as Job said to Magnus.[30]

A man may live a long time in this land before he discovers the
existence of a young Switzerland free from the trammels of conservative
liberalism (more conservative than liberal), and free from those of
sectarian radicalism (preeminently sectarian). Both these trends are
abundantly represented in the columns of the leading newspapers; the
adherents of both are attached to the outworn political and social forms
of the bourgeois regime which is declining from one end of Europe to the
other.

I was surprised and delighted at what I read in the latest issues of the
"Revue de la Societe de Zofingue." I wish to make my French friends
acquainted with what I have learned, so that sympathetic relationships
may be established between them and young Switzerland.

The Zofingia Society is the leading society of Swiss students, and the
oldest. It was founded in 1818, and will therefore celebrate its
centenary next year. It comprises twelve sections: nine of these are
"academic," viz. Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchatel, Berne, Basle, and Zurich;
three are "gymnasial," viz. St. Gall, Lucerne, and Bellinzona.[31] The
membership of the society is steadily increasing. In July, 1916, it was
575; but now, nearly a year later, it is 700. The organisation has a
monthly review, "Centralblatt des Zofingervereins," issued in French,
German, and Italian. This periodical is now in its fifty-seventh year.
It publishes lectures, reports of discussions, and other matters of
interest to the association.

The essential distinction between this body and the other societies of
Swiss students is that the Zofingia, as explained in the first article
of its constitution, "places itself above and outside all political
parties, but takes its stand on democratic principles.... It abstains
entir