(1760) and of the Economical Society (1777), and author of a treatise
on the philosophy of history entitled Geschichte der Menschheit
(1764), and of another on ideal politics, Philosophische und patriotische
Träume eines Menschenfreundes (1755), while many of his
economical tracts appeared (1776–1782) under the general title of
Epherneriden der lllenschheil. At Bern Albrecht von Haller (q.v.),
though especially distinguished as a scientific writer, yet by his poem
Die Alpen (1732) and his travels in his native country did much to
excite and stimulate the love of mountain scenery. Another
Bernese, Charles Victor de Bonstetten (q.v.), is a type of the gallicized
Liberal Bernese patrician, while Beat Ludwig von Muralt (1665–1749)
analysed the racial characteristics of other nations for the
instruction of his fellow-countrymen, his Lettres sur les anglais et
les français (1725) being his principal work. Samuel Wyttenbach
(1748–1830) devoted himself to making known the beauties of his
country to its natives, travelling much and writing much about his
travels. Gottlieb Sigmund Gruner (q.v.) wrote the Eisgebirge des
Schweizerlandes (1760), a work describing the ice-clad mountains of
Switzerland, though it is rather a useful compilation than an original
contribution to knowledge, but a decided advance on his fellow
Bernese Johann Georg Altmann's (1697–1758) Versuch einer historischen
und physischen Beschreibung der helvetischen Eisgebirge
(1751). In another department of knowledge a son of Albrecht
von Haller, Gottlieb Emmanuel von Haller g735~1786), compiled
a most useful bibliography of writings relating to Swiss history, the
Bibliothek der Schweizergeschichte (6 vols., 1784–1787), that is still
indispensable to the historical student.
But in the 18th century Zürich was undoubtedly the intellectual and literary capital of German-speaking Switzerland, and gained the title of “Athens on the Limmat.” One of its earliest and most famous celebrities was J. J. Scheuchzer (q.v.), who travelled much in Switzerland, and wrote much (his travels are described in Latin) as to its natural curiosities, being himself an F.R.S., and closely associated with Newton and the other English scientific men of the day. But in the purely literary domain the names of J. J. Bodmer (q.v.) and of his friend Johann Jakob Breitinger (1701–1776), are the most prominent. By their united exertions the antiquated traditions of German literature were broken down to a large extent, while great praise was bestowed on English poets, Shakespeare, l/Iilton and others. Their views were violently opposed by Gottsched, the leader of the Saxon school, and the controversy that arose forms part of the history of German literature. In 1721–1 723 they published Jointly the Discourse der Maler, a periodical which spread their views, while more elaborate and systematic expositions of their critical doctrine as to poetry are Bodmer's Krilische Abhandlung von dem Wundcrbaren in der Poesie (1740), and Breitinger's Crilische Dichtkunst (also in 1740). Their untiring efforts helped to prepare the way for the later outburst of German literature begun by Klopstock, Wieland and Lessing. Another famous Zürich writer was Solomon Gesner (q.v.), the pastoral poet, and yet another was J. K. Lavater (q.v.), now best remembered as a supporter of the view that the face presents a perfect indication of character and that physiognomy may therefore he treated as a science. Other well-known Ztirich names are those of J. H. Pestalozzi (1746–1827, g.v.), the educationalist, of Johann Caspar Hirzel (1725;1803), another of the founders of the Helvetic Society, and author of Die Wirlhschaft eines philosophischen Bauers (1761), and of Johann Georg Sulzer (1720–1779), whose chief work is one on the laws of art or aesthetics, entitled Allgemeine Thcorie der schonen Kiinsle (1771–1774>
Outside the three towns named above there were several writers of German-speaking Switzerland who must be mentioned. One of the best known even now is Johann Georg Zimmermann (1728–1795 g.~u.), whose Betrathtungen aber die Einsamkeit (1756–1784–1785) profoundly impressed his contemporaries. He, like the fabulist A. E. Frohlich (q.'u.), was born at Brugg. Johannes von Muller (q.v.) of Schaffhausen, was the first who attempted to write (1780) a detailed history of Switzerland, which, though inspired rather by his love of freedom than by any deep research, was very characteristic of his times. J. G. Ebel (q.v.) was a Swiss by adoption only, but deserves mention as the author of the first detailed guidebook to the country (1793), which held its ground till the days of “ Murray" and “Baedeker." A later writer, Heinrich Zschokke (1771–1848), also a Swiss by adoption only, produced (1822) a history o Switzerland written for the people, which had a great vo ue.
in the later literary history of German-speaking Switzerland three names stand out above all others-Albrecht Bitzius (q.'v.), known as Jeremias Gotthelf from the first of his numerous tales of peasant life in- the Emmenthal, Gottfried Keller (q.tv.), perhaps the most genuinely Swiss poet and novelist of the century, and Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (q.v.), also a poet and novelist, but of more cosmopolitan leanings and tastes. Jakob Burckhardt (.1/.) was a famous writer on Italian art, while Jakob Frey (1824–1875) continued the work of Bitzius by his tales of Swiss peasant life. Ulrich Hegner (1759–1840) of Winterthur wrote novels full of local colour, as is also the case with David Hess (1770–1843) in his description of a cure at Baden in Aargau and various tales. Johann Martin Usteri (1763–1828) of Zürich was one of the earliest to write poems in his native dialect. Later we have a number of Zürich poets or versifiers, some of whose writings have become very well known. Such were Heinrich Leuthold (1827–1879), August Corrodi (1826–1885) and Leonhard Widmer (1808–1868), the author of Trittst irn Morgenrot daher (1842), which, set to music by the Cistercian monk Alberic Zwyssig (1808–1854), is now known as the “ Swiss Psalm, ” of Es lebl in jeder Schweizerbrusl (1842), and Wo Berge sich erheben (1844). To the Bernese poet, Johann Rudolf Vi/'yss (1781–1830), whose father, J. D. Wyss (1743–1818), was the author of the Swiss Family Robinson, we owe the Swiss national anthem, Rufst du mein Vaterland? and the song, Herz, myn Herz, warurn so trurig?-while Johann Georg Krauer (1792–1845), of Lucerne, wrote the Rtitlilied, Von ferns sei herzlich gegriissel, and Gottfried Keller himself was responsible for O mein Heimalland. Gottlieb Jakob Kuhn (1775–1845) wrote many poems in the Bernese dialect as to the Alps and their inhabitants. Less national in sentiment and more metaphysical are the lyrics of “ Oranmor, " the pen-name of the Bernese Ferdinand Schmid (1823–1888).
Among the chief contemporary Swiss writers in the department of belles-lettres, novelists, poets, &c., may be mentioned Ernst Zahn, Meinrad Lienert, Arnold Ott, Carl Spitteler, Fritz Marti, Walther Siegfried, Adolf Frey, Hermann Hesse, J. C. Herr, J. V. Widmann, and Gottfried Strasser.
Isabella Kaiser, by her poems and stories, upholds the honour of the fair sex, while the fame won by Johanna Spyri (d. 1891) for her children's stories is still fresh. Of historical writers in different departments of their sub'ect in the course of the 19th century some of the principal were (in alphabetical order): Ildefons von Arx (1755–1833), the historian of St Gall, of which he had been a monk, E. Blosch (1838–1900), the historian of the Protestant churches in German-speaking Switzerland, J. J. Blumer (1819–1875), and J. C. Bluntschli (1808–1881), who both devoted their energies to Swiss constitutional matters, J. J. Hottinger (1783–1860), the continua tor of J. von MLiller's Swiss history, J. E. Kopp (1793–1866), who rewrote early Swiss history on the basis of authentic documents, R. Maag (1866–1899), who began the publication of the invaluable Habsburg terrier of the early 14th century, but had to leave the completion of the work to other competent hands, P. C. von Planta (1815–1902) and J. A. Pupikofer (1797–1882), the historians respectively of the Grisons and of the Thur au, A. P. von Segesser (1817–1888), the historian and statesman oi Lucerne, A. F. Stettler (1796–1349), A. von Tillier (1792–1854), E. von Wattenwyl (1815–1890), and J. L. Wurstemberger (1783–1862) who all four wrote on Bernese history, G. von Wyss (1816–1893), to whom we owe, among many excellent works, an admirable account of all Swiss historians and their works, his step-brother F. von Vilyss (1818–1907), a great authority on the legal and constitutional history of Switzerland, and J. C. Zellweger (1768–1855), the historian of Appenzell. Among contemporary historical writers of German-speaking Switzerland we may mention (in alphabetical order), A. Büchi, J. L. Brandstetter, W. Burckhardt, K. Dändliker, J. Dierauer, R. Durrer, H. Escher, A. Heusler, R. Hoppeler, T. von Liebenau, W. Merz, G. Meyer von Knonau, W. F. von Mülinen, W. Oechsli, J. R. Rahn, L. R. von Salis, P. Schweizer, J. Schollenberger, J. Strickler, R. Thommen, and H. Wartmann.
b. French Branch.—The knight Othon of Grandson is the earliest figure in the literature of the Suisse romande. He was killed in a judicial duel in 1397, the last scion of his ancient house, and left some amatory poems behind him, while one is extant only in a translation by Chaucer, who makes littering mention'of him. In the 15th and 16th centuries many miracle plays in the local Romance dialect were known. The Chronique:les chanoines de Neuchcitel was formerly supposed to date from the 15th century, but is now considered by many to be a forgery. More individual and characteristic are the romance about Charlemagne, entitled Fierabras le Géant (1478), by Jean Bagnyon, and the poem named Congié pris du siècle séculier (1480), by Jacques de Bugnin. But the first really prominent personage in this department of literature is Francois Bonivard (q.v.; d. 1570) who wrote the Chroniques de Geneve that extend down to 1530 and were continued to 1562 by Michel Roset (d. 1613). The first Protestant French translation of the Bible was issued at Neuchatel in 1535, its principal authors being Pierre Robert (nicknamed Olivétan) and. Pierre de Vingle. Asa sort of pendant to the Protestant Bonivard, we have the nun Jeanne de Jussie who in her Levain du Calvinisrne (c. 1545) recounts the establishment of Calvinism at Geneva, while the noble Pierre de Pierrefleur in his Mémoires does the same in a lighter and less lachrymose style for Orbe, his native district. Naturally the Reformers of the Suisse Romande used French much in their theological and polemical works. Of more general interest are the writings of two F renchmen who were driven by religious persecutions to end their lives at Geneva-the memoirs and poems of Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigné (1552–1630), and the historical writings and poems of Simon Goulart (1543–1628). The great deliverance of Geneva from the duke of Savoy, known as the Escalade (1602), was described in prose by David Piaget (1580–1644) in his Histoire de l'escalade and celebrated in verse by Samuel Chappuzeau (1625–1701)in his Geneve délivrée, though the narratives
