on has greater need of a
masterful president." Having no leader, it is vague, somnolent, and
takes little interest in current events. It lacks the corporate spirit.
"The Genevese are strongly individualistic, and yet, unfortunately, we
rarely find among them a strong individuality." We may add that they
continue to display certain characteristics of the Genevese of old.
Dreading criticism and ironical comment, they are afraid to let
themselves go, to show what they really feel; their sensibilities are
easily wounded, and they therefore invest themselves with coldness as
with a cuirass; their attitude is one of perpetual mistrust; they are
ever on the defensive, as if the duke of Savoy were always on the point
of storming the walls.[34]

I pass no judgments. I am merely registering, in brief, the opinions of
those among the students who are best qualified to judge. Taking them
all in all, these opinions harmonise with my own observations.

* * * * *

The latest issues of the "Centralblatt des Zofingervereins" manifest a
free spirit. The issue for May, 1917, contains a frankly
internationalist article by Jules Humbert-Droz entitled _National
Defence_. Special mention must be made of a broad-minded lecture,
_Socialism and the War_, delivered in February, 1917, by Ernest Gloor of
Lausanne at the spring festival in Yverdon, and published in the
"Centralblatt" for April and May. I must also refer to Gloor's lecture
_What is our Country?_, delivered at Gruetli in the canton of Lausanne.
Another noteworthy lecture is that of Serge Bonhote, delivered at Gruetli
in the canton of Neuchatel, entitled _Fatherland_, and heralding the
days to come. These lectures were respectively published in December,
1916, and January, 1917. I should have liked to give extracts from
various appreciative articles upon _The Russian Revolution_. Above all,
I should like to quote, from the April issue, Max Gerber's enthusiastic
welcome to the revolution. But space is limited, and the best way of
expounding the ideas of these young people will be to summarise a
detailed discussion in which they have recently been engaged concerning
_The Imperialism of the Great Powers and the Role of Switzerland_. The
topic was suggested to the sections by Julius Schmidhauser of Zurich,
"cand. jur.," president of the central section. Schmidhauser has edited
the report of these discussions, bringing to the task a broad and
tolerant synth