Bonstetten

Bonstetten, Charles Victor de (1745-1832), a Swiss publicist and judge, who was born at Bern. Soon after the age of fourteen he was sent to Geneva, where he imbibed principles hardly in keeping with the traditions of the noble family to which he belonged. His father recalled him, and finding that the dulness of Bern was unsettling his brain sent him to Leyden, from which place he went to England, and thence to Paris. After his father's death he went to Italy, and on his return he received different judicial appointments in his native land. But his birth and connection on the one hand, and the views with which he was credited on the other, prevented his getting on with either party, and at the beginning of the political troubles he went to Copenhagen, and finally came back to Geneva, where he finished his life. He was not of any exceptional merit either as author or philosopher; but he was a good talker, and was the friend of many great men. His principal works are Recherches sur la Nature et les Lois de l'Imagination, Etude de l'Homme, L'Education Nationale, L'Homme du Midi et l'Homme du Nord, and Pensees sur Divers Objets du Bien Public.