Ludwig, who had been called to Vienna. On June 21st of the same year he delivered his introductory lecture, the subject of which was Light and Life. It was printed as a pamphlet, which went through three editions. On his way to the lecture room he met the rector of the university, Hermann Köchly, who was not only an acute philologist but also something of a wag, and who assured him that the peasants, led by their pastors and armed with clubs, were coming down the lake to put a stop to such godless proceedings, just as a dozen years before they had overthrown the government that ventured to offer a professorship to David Strauss.
At that time the society of Zurich was uncommonly attractive, owing in a great measure to the presence of many political refugees from France, Germany, and Italy, whom the reaction which followed the Revolution of 1848 had driven into exile. Very pleasant, too, and stimulating were his associations with G. H. Lewes and George Eliot, who came to Zurich on purpose to visit him; with Varnhagen von Ense, Gottfried Keller, Princess Wittgenstein, Countess d'Agoult, and especially the geologist Eduard Desor, at whose country seat in the Jura, Combe-Varin, a select circle of congenial spirits met from time to time for the interchange of thought and the discussion of scientific questions. Among those who were wont to assemble under Desor's hospitable roof besides Moleschott may be mentioned Carl Vogt, Charles Martin, Jacob Venedey, Liebig, Schönbein (the discoverer of guncotton). Dr. Hans Küchler (a German Catholic parson), and Theodore Parker, who spent the summer of 1859 in the Alps for the benefit of his rapidly failing health. At these meetings papers were read, and Moleschott speaks in the highest terms of one by Parker, entitled A Bumblebee's Thoughts on the Plan and Purpose of Creation, an exceedingly acute and amusing persiflage of the anthropocentric theory of the universe. These essays form the contents of Desor's Album of Combe-Varin, a unique memorial volume of about three hundred pages. Moleschott and Parker often differed in their ideas, but entertained the warmest regard for each other as earnest and honest seekers after truth. Curiously enough, a peculiarly strong attachment sprang up between Parker and Küchler, the radical Unitarian and the German Catholic, who used to sit for hours in conversation under an evergreen tree, a fit symbol of their lasting friendship and now known as "Parker's Fir."[1]
- ↑ Moleschott's charming autobiography, Für meine Freunde (Giessen: Emil Roth, 1894, pp. 326), gives a pleasant account of the days spent with Desor and his illustrious guests at Combe-Varin. Indeed, these personal reminiscences are most delightful reading, and it is to be regretted that they have remained a fragment extending only to 1860, and thus comprising but a little more than one half of his life. The life at Combe-Varin is also described in Alfred Altherr's Theodor Parker, in seinem Leben und Werken (St. Gallen:
