I Did Not
Observe Either On The Road Or In Any Of The Village Thro' Which We Passed
Any Striking Specimen Of Valaisan Female Beauty; But I Often Remarked The
Prominent Bosom That Rousseau Describes As Frequent Among Them.
We met with
several cretins or idiots, all of whom had goitres in a greater or less
degree.
These souls of God without sin, as the cretins are called, are
very merry souls; they always appear to be laughing. They seem to have
adopted and united three systems of philosophy: they are Diogenes as to
independence and neglect of decency and cleanliness; Democriti as to their
disposition to laugh perpetually; and Aristippi inasmuch as they seem to be
perfectly contented with their state. They are in general fat and well fed,
for the poorest inhabitants give them something. They have a good deal of
cunning, and many curious anecdotes are related of them which shews that
they are endowed with a sort of sagacity resembling the instinct of
animals. I recollect one myself mentioned by Zimmermann in his Essay on
Solitude, of a cretin who was accustomed to imitate with his voice the
sound of the village clock whenever it struck the hours and quarters; one
day, by some accident, the clock stopped; yet the cretin went through the
chimes of the hours and quarters with the same regularity as the clock
would have done had it been going.
We arrived at night at the village of Brieg at the foot of the Simplon and
put up at a very comfortable inn.
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