rect delineation, in
words and sketches, of the peculiarities and glories of Alp-land. The
exquisite French of this work has never yet found a translator.

His early style had something so fresh and so quaint that it can be
accounted for only by going to the books which Toepffer studied. His _dii
majores_ were Montaigne and Amyot, and Paul Louis Courier, a learned
Hellenistic scholar, as well as vivacious writer of the French
Revolution and of the first Empire. For Montaigne Toepffer cherished the
highest admiration. In his "Reflections and Short Disquisitions upon
Art," (_Reflexions et Menus Propos_,) he thus tersely sums up the
excellency of the French philosopher:--"Thinker full of probity and
grace; philosopher so much the greater by that which he said he did not
know than by that which he thought he knew." In our own language,
Shakspeare was his favorite author. M. de Sainte-Beuve says, "Toepffer
was sworn to Shakspeare," and adds that the works of Hogarth first
taught the Genevese writer to appreciate Shakspeare, Richardson, and
Fielding.

Besides possessing the ability to convey instruction to others, Toepffer
was a fine classical scholar. With two other literary gentlemen, he
published some excellent editions of the Greek classics, which he
enriched with notes. All these qualifications marked him as the man for
a still higher position. Accordingly, in 1832, when only thirty-three,
he was appointed Professor of Belles-Lettres in the College of Geneva.
At the same time, while discharging faithfully his duties in the
College, he conducted, aided by tutors, his little _pension_, now so
well known by the "Voyages en Zig-Zag."

It was in the midst of these various occupations that Toepffer took his
recreation in contributing to the literary periodicals of Geneva
superior essays on Art, and many of those charming stories which to-day
delight us in the collection entitled "Les Nouvelles Genevoises." He
also wrote for political journals. But what made him first known outside
those communities where the French tongue is spoken were his humoristic
sketches. They were not thrown off from his fertile and genial hand for
gain or for renown. From childhood, under the influence of artistic
example at home, and of his admiration of Hogarth, he had acquired a
remarkable skill in graphically delineating whatever his close
observation of men prompted. Like Hogarth, his artist-wit, his fun, and
his moral teachings took the shape