enthusiasm of blue Lake Leman, "Mon lac est le premier." Madame de Stael
was born of Swiss parents in Paris, but her childhood and many of her
mature years were spent in charming Coppet, where the waters of the lake
lave the shores within the boundary of the Canton of Geneva. Sismondi
was a native of Geneva, and under the influence of Madame de Stael, and
inspired by his visits to Italy, resolved to devote himself to the past
glories of the land of his ancestors. It was in the city of Geneva that
he first delivered those lectures on "The Literature of Southern
Europe," which, in book-form, are so well known to every civilized
nation. Benjamin Constant, another Genevese, was a kindred spirit, who
shared with Madame de Stael a delightful and profitable intimacy.
Dumont; (so highly eulogized by Lord Macaulay,) the friend of Mirabeau
and of Jeremy Bentham, was also of Geneva. De Candolle and his son gave
to science their arduous labors. De la Rive in Chemistry, Pictet in
Electrology, and Merle d'Aubigne in History, Gaussen and Malan in
Theology, and many others, not unknown to fame, might be mentioned as
continuing the list of distinguished names that testify to the
intellectual supremacy of Geneva.

Here, in our own day, what sons of Fame have gone to linger near a
society so congenial! Byron tells us that his life was purer at Geneva
than that which he led elsewhere. Here, amidst the scenes consecrated by
Milton nearly two centuries before, Shelley delighted to dream away his
summer hours. He loved to go forth on the pellucid surface of "clear,
placid Leman," there to drink in the soft beauties of the shores, or to
gaze upon the distant sublimities of Mont Blanc. Here Sir Humphry Davy
came, after his Southern tour, and "laid him down to die." Wordsworth
found here the graces of his Westmoreland home wedded to a grandeur
which realized the loftiest conception of his mind. At Geneva, to-day,
is found that noble son of France and devoted friend of America, the
Count Agenor de Gasparin.

Here, too, have members of the royal and noble houses of Europe come to
be wooed by those waters whose "crystal face" Byron calls

"The mirror where the stars and mountains view
The stillness of their aspect."

The late Charles Albert, the hero King of Sardinia, was educated at
Geneva. More than once did the future benefactor and monarch of Northern
Italy stray along the road to Lausanne, or float in his little shallop
on the sid