"
The next day a Genevese paper published the news of the proclamation of
the Republic in France.
Simultaneously arrived a letter from Julius Lange, attacking me for my
"miserly city politics," seriously complaining that "our declaration of
war against Prussia had come to nothing," and hoping that my stay in
France had by now made me alter my views.
In his opinion, we had neglected "an opportunity of rebellion, that
would never recur."
XXXIII.
Lake Leman fascinated me. All the scenery round looked fairy-like to me,
a dream land, in which mighty mountains cast their blue-black shadows
down on the turquoise water, beneath a brilliant, sparkling sunshine
that saturated the air with its colouring. My impressions of Lausanne,
Chillon, Vevey, Montreux, were recorded in the first of my lectures at
the University the following year. The instruments of torture at
Chillon, barbaric and fearsome as they were, made me think of the still
worse murderous instruments being used in the war between France and
Germany. It seemed to me that if one could see war at close quarters,
one would come to regard the earth as peopled by dangerous lunatics.
Political indifference to human life and human suffering had taken the
place of the premeditated cruelty of the Middle Ages. Still, if no
previous war had ever been so frightful, neither had there ever been so
much done to mitigate suffering.
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