Charles Victor de Bonstetten
Template:Short description Template:Infobox writer Charles Victor de Bonstetten (Template:Langx; 3 September 1745Template:Snd3 February 1832) was a Swiss liberal writer.
Life
Charles Victor was born at Bern in Switzerland to one of its great patrician familiesTemplate:Sfn on 3 September 1745.<ref name="Britannica">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> He began his education there before traveling at age 14 to Yverdon.Template:Sfn He studied at Geneva from 1763 to 1766 at Geneva, where he came under the influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Charles Bonnet and imbibed liberal sentiments.Template:Sfn His father, intending to fit him for a career as a Bernese senator of the traditional type, was alarmed at the tone of his letters from Geneva and recalled his son to Bern.Template:Sfn He obeyed but his distaste for Bernese life led him to attempt suicide by pistol. Supposedly, he was distracted by a moonbeam at the moment of discharge and survived to be sent by his father to Leiden to continue his studies.Template:Sfn
As the climate of Leiden disagreed with him, he was permitted to travel to England in 1769,Template:Sfn where he made many friends including the poet Thomas Gray.Template:Sfn He returned home via Paris where he was introduced to its literary society.Template:Sfn At home, he nursed his father during the illness which killed him in 1770.Template:Sfn Following his father's death, he immediately traveled to Italy, where he reached as far south as Naples.Template:Sfn No longer a revolutionary but still a liberal, he returned to Bern in 1774 and entered its political life.Template:Sfn
He began his political career as a member of the avoyer's councilTemplate:Sfn and acted as the patron of the historian Johannes von Müller.Template:Sfn He was soon appointed as bailiff over Gessenay,Template:Sfn possibly leaving it in 1779 for Saanen.Template:Sfn ambiguity He published his Pastoral Letters (Template:Lang) in German in 1781. In 1787, he was transferred to Nyon near the French border.Template:Sfn He enjoyed the location but was distrusted both by his former liberal friends and his conservative peers.Template:Sfn He was obliged to retire after taking part in a celebration of the storming of the Bastille in 1791Template:Sfn and—probably simply owing to his lack of military training—misdirecting the guards under his command when the area was threatened by the army of the Convention the next year.Template:Sfn From 1795 to 1797, he served as bailiff of the Italian-speaking districts of Lugano, Locarno, Mendrisio, and Val MaggiaTemplate:Sfn in the Ticino valley.Template:Sfn He is credited with introducing the region to the potato.Template:Sfn
The French invasion of Switzerland and establishment of the Helvetic Republic in 1798 drove Bonstetten once more into private life.Template:Sfn At the invitation of Madame Brun, he resided in Copenhagen, Denmark, until 1801.Template:Sfn He then traveled to Italy<ref name="Britannica" /> before settling in Geneva for the remainder of his life.Template:Sfn He resided there uneventfullyTemplate:Sfn but in the society of many distinguished people, including Madame de Staël.Template:Sfn His most celebrated book—Men of the South and of the North (Template:Lang)—was published during this era, arguing that climate was responsible for the superiority of northern Europe over the south,Template:Sfn but his own writing generally fell into low esteem.Template:Sfn Instead, he is principally remembered for his social character—as a conversationalist, and as the friend, often the intimate companion of many of the more celebrated leaders of thought and action during his long life.Template:Sfn
Works
- Template:Lang, 1782
- The Hermit (Template:Lang; 1792)
- Lesser Writings (Template:Lang, 1799–1801)
- On National Education (Template:Lang, 1802)
- Trip to the Scene of the Last 6 Books of the Aeneid, with Some Observations on Modern Latium (Template:Lang, 1805)
- Research on the Nature and Laws of the Imagination (Template:Lang, 1807)
- Thoughts on the Diverse Objects of Public Goods (Template:Lang, 1815)
- Studies on Man, or, Research on the Faculties of Thought and Thinking (Template:Lang, 1821)
- Man of the South and Man of the North, or, The Influence of Climates (Template:Lang, 1824)
- Scandinavia and the Alps (Template:Lang, 1826)
- Recollections Written in 1831 (Template:Lang, 1831)