We came here last Friday, and have spent our time most happily with our
excellent friend Mrs. Marcet. His children are all so fond of Dr.
Marcet, we see that he is their companion and friend. They have all been
happily busy in making a paper fire-balloon, sixteen feet in diameter,
and thirty feet high. A large company were invited to see it mount. It
was a fine evening. The balloon was filled on the green before the
house. The lawn slopes down to the lake, and opposite to it magnificent
Mont Blanc, the setting sun shining on its summit. After some
heart-beatings about a hole in the top of the balloon, through which the
smoke was seen to issue--an evil omen--it went up successfully. The sun
had set, but we saw its reflection beautifully on one side of the
balloon, so that it looked like a globe half ice, half fire, or half
moon, half sun, self-suspended in the air. It went up exactly a mile. I
say exactly, because Pictet measured the height by an instrument of a
new invention, which I will describe when we meet. The air here is so
clear, that at this height we saw it distinctly.

M. Pictet de Rochemont, brother to our old friend, has taken most kind
pains to translate the best passages from my father's _Memoirs_ for the
_Bibliotheque Universelle_. We were yesterday at his house with a large
party, and met Madame Necker de Saussure--much more agreeable than her
book. Her manner and figure reminded us of our beloved Mrs. Moutray: she
is deaf, too, and she has the same resignation, free from suspicion, in
her expression when she is not speaking, and the same gracious attention
to the person who speaks to her.


CHATEAU DE COPPET, _Sept. 28_,

8 A.M.