[A Memoir of Felix Neff, Pastor of the High Alps. By William Stephen
Gilly, M.A., Prebendary of Durham. Rivington, 1832.]
This is a volume which no one can read without improvement. It contains
the history of a young Protestant clergyman, Felix Neff, who devoted his
life to the duty of preaching the divine word to the scattered
inhabitants of the dreary regions called “the High Alps” of
France[1];--and who, in the discharge of this sacred trust, felt that he
was advancing his principal object while he was improving the physical
condition of these poor people, and leading them to the acquirement of
_general_ knowledge. The difficulties which this wise and pious man
encountered could only have been overcome by the most ardent zeal. The
labours which he underwent, and the privations which he sustained,
ruined his health, and consigned him prematurely to the grave. But his
career, though short, was one of permanent usefulness to the
mountaineers in whose service he perished: and he has left behind him a
new example of how much one man may accomplish for the benefit of his
fellow-creatures, who goes forward in a good work with singleness of
purpose, regardless of any other reward but the approbation of his own
conscience.
Neff was not a man in whom book-learning constituted the only knowledge.
He received a tolerable education from the pastor of the village near
Geneva in which he was born; and the contemplative and devout qualities
of his mind were called forth by the grand and beautiful scenery by
which he was surrounded in his boyhood. But he had a strong love for
what was practically useful, and he therefore learnt the trade of a
nursery gardener; he had a stronger passion for romantic adventure, and
he entered as a private soldier in the service of Geneva in 1815. At
sixteen, when he was a gardener, he published a valuable little treatise
on the culture of trees; and, within two years after he became a soldier
at the age of seventeen, he was promoted to be serjeant of artillery, in
consequence of his theoretical and practical knowledge of mathematics.
His anxious desire, however, was to be a teacher of religion; and he at
length quitted the army to devote himself to the studies which would be
necessary previous to his ordination as a minister. He first assumed the
functions of what is called a pastor-catechist; and was ultimately
called to the vocation for which he was so anxious, by one of those
independent congregations of England, whose ministers are received in
the Protestant churches of France. Neff adopted the resolution to be
ordained in London, for the satisfaction of some religious scruples.
This ceremony took place in a chapel in the Poultry, in 1823; and within
six months after he was appointed authorized pastor of the department of
the High Alps. To form an estimate of the labours which such an
appointment involved, it may be sufficient to mention that, in order to
visit his various flocks, the pastor had to travel, from his fixed
residence, twelve miles in a western direction, sixty in an eastern,
twenty in a southern, and thirty-three in a northern; and that Neff
steadily persevered, in all seasons, in passing on foot from one
district to another, climbing mountains covered with snow, forcing a way
through valleys choked up by the masses of rocks that were hurled down
by the winter’s storm, partaking of the coarse fare and imperfect
shelter of the peasant’s hut, and never allowing himself any repose or
relaxation, because the ignorance of the poor people who were intrusted
to his charge was so great, that nothing but incessant activity on his
part could surmount its evils. Mr. Gilly has justly observed (speaking
in his character of an English clergyman), “it is well that we should
see how hard some of our brethren work, and how hard they live; and that
we should discover, to our humiliation, that it is not always where
there is the greatest company of preachers that the word takes deepest
root.”
The course of Neff’s life, and the affection which he inspired, will be
better understood from the following extract:--
“When his arrival was expected in certain hamlets, whose rotation to be
visited was supposed to be coming round, it was beautiful to see the
cottages send forth their inhabitants, to watch the coming of the
beloved minister. ‘Come take your dinner with us.’--‘Let me prepare your
supper.’--‘Permit me to give up my bed to you,’--were re-echoed from
many a voice, and though there was nothing in the repast which denoted a
feast-day, yet never was festival observed with greater rejoicing than
by those whose rye-bread and pottage were shared with the pastor Neff.
Sometimes, when the old people of one cabin were standing at their
doors, and straining their eyes to catch the first view of their ‘guide
to heaven,’ the youngsters of another were perched on the summit of a
rock, and stealing a prospect which would afford them an earlier sight
of him, and give them the opportunity of offering the first invitation.
It was on these occasions that he obtained a perfect knowledge of the
people, questioning them about such of their domestic concerns as he
might be supposed to take an interest in, as well as about their
spiritual condition, and finding where he could be useful both as a
secular adviser and a religious counsellor. ‘Could all their children
read? Did they understand what they read? Did they offer up morning and
evening prayers? Had they any wants that he could relieve? Any doubts
that he could remove? Any afflictions wherein he could be a comforter?’
“It was thus that he was the father of his flock, and master of their
affections and their opinions; and when the seniors asked for his
blessing, and the children took hold of his hands or his knees, he felt
all the fatigue of his long journeys pass away, and became recruited
with new strength. But for the high and holy feelings which sustained
him, it is impossible that he could have borne up against his numerous
toils and exposures, even for the few months in which he thus put his
constitution to the trial. Neither rugged paths, nor the inclement
weather of these Alps, which would change suddenly from sunshine to
rain, and from rain to sleet, and from sleet to snow; nor snow deep
under foot, and obscuring the view when dangers lay thick on his road;
nothing of this sort deterred him from setting out, with his staff in
his hand, and his wallet on his back, when he imagined that his duty
summoned him. I have been assured by those who have received him into
their houses at such times, that he has come in chilly, wet, and
fatigued; or exhausted by heat, and sudden transitions from excessive
heat to piercing cold, and that after sitting down a few minutes his
elastic spirits would seem to renovate his sinking frame, and he would
enter into discourse with all the mental vigour of one who was neither
weary nor languid.
“When he was not resident at the presbytery, he was the guest of some
peasant, who found him willing to live as he lived, and to make a scanty
meal of soup-maigre, often without salt or bread, and to retire to rest
in the same apartment, where a numerous family were crowded together,
amidst all the inconveniences of a dirty and smoky hovel.”
We have already stated that the benevolent pastor of the High Alps was
intent upon improving the condition of his people as to physical
comfort, at the same time that he proclaimed to them the hopes and
consolations of religion. Let us see how he set about this work:--
“His first attempt was to impart an idea of domestic convenience.
Chimneys and windows to their hovels were luxuries to which few of them
had aspired, till he showed them how easy it was to make a passage for
the smoke, and admittance for the light and air. He next convinced them
that warmth might be obtained more healthily than by pigging together
for six or seven months in stables, from which the muck of the cattle
was removed but once during the year. For their coarse and unwholesome
food, he had, indeed, no substitute, because the sterility of the soil
would produce no other; but he pointed out a mode of tillage, by which
they increased the quantity: and in cases of illness, where they had no
conception of applying the simplest remedies, he pointed out the comfort
which a sick person may derive from light and warm soups and other
soothing assistance. So ignorant were they of what was hurtful or
beneficial in acute disorders, that wine and brandy were no unusual
prescriptions in the height of a raging fever. Strange enough, and still
more characteristic of savage life, the women, till Neff taught the men
better manners, were treated with so much disregard, that they never sat
at table with their husbands or brothers, but stood behind them, and
received morsels from their hands with obeisance and profound
reverence.”
He taught the people of the valleys how to irrigate their lands, so as
to increase the crop of grass, which is exceedingly small. He found the
utmost difficulty in explaining to his hearers that the water might be
made to rise and fall, and might be dammed up and distributed
accordingly as it might be required for use. The labour and expense
appeared to them insuperable difficulties. In spite of their prejudices
he accomplished his object, working with the people as a common
labourer, and applying his knowledge as an engineer for their exclusive
advantage. By thus teaching them how to double their crops he saved them
from some of their most severe privations. He taught them also how to
cultivate the potato with advantage. But he did more even than this. He
incited the people to build a schoolhouse in one of the districts where
knowledge was most wanted: and that proper teachers might be spread
throughout these regions so shut out from the ordinary means of
education, he persuaded a number of young persons to assemble together,
one or two from each community, during the most dreary of the winter
months, when they could not labour in the fields, and during that time
to work hard with him in the attainment of that knowledge which they
were afterwards to spread amongst their uninstructed friends and
neighbours. The perseverance of these young people was worthy of their
zealous pastor. To accomplish this good work perfectly he obtained the
assistance of a studious young friend, who was preparing himself for a
great public school. Neff’s own account of his progress as a
schoolmaster is so interesting that we are sure our readers will not
complain of its length:--
“The short space of time which we had before us, rendered every moment
precious. We divided the day into three parts. The first was from
sunrise to eleven o’clock, when we breakfasted. The second from noon to
sunset, when we supped. The third from supper till ten or eleven o’clock
at night, making in all fourteen or fifteen hours of study in the
twenty-four. We devoted much of this time to lessons in reading, which
the wretched manner in which they had been taught, their detestable
accent, and strange tone of voice, rendered a most necessary, but
tiresome duty. The grammar, too, of which not one of them had the least
idea, occupied much of our time. People who have been brought up in
towns can have no conception of the difficulty which mountaineers and
rustics, whose ideas are confined to those objects only to which they
have been familiarized, find in learning this branch of science. There
is scarcely any way of conveying the meaning of it to them. All the
usual terms and definitions, and the means which are commonly employed
in schools, are utterly unintelligible here. But the curious and novel
devices which must be employed have this advantage,--that they exercise
their understanding, and help to form their judgment. Dictation was one
of the methods to which I had recourse: without it they would have made
no progress in grammar and orthography; but they wrote so miserably, and
slowly, that this consumed a great portion of valuable time. Observing
that they were ignorant of the signification of a great number of French
words, of constant use and recurrence, I made a selection from the
vocabulary, and I set them to write down in little copy-books words
which were in most frequent use; but the explanations contained in the
dictionary were not enough, and I was obliged to rack my brain for new
and brief definitions which they could understand, and to make them
transcribe these. Arithmetic was another branch of knowledge which
required many a weary hour. Geography was considered a matter of
recreation after dinner; and they pored over the maps with a feeling of
delight and amusement, which was quite new to them. I also busied myself
in giving them some notions of the sphere, and of the form and motion of
the earth; of the seasons and the climates, and of the heavenly bodies.
Everything of this sort was as perfectly novel to them, as it would have
been to the islanders of Otaheite; and even the elementary books, which
are usually put into the hands of children, were at first as
unintelligible as the most abstruse treatises on mathematics. I was
consequently forced to use the simplest and plainest modes of
demonstration; but these amused and instructed them at the same time. A
ball made of the box-tree, with a hole through it, and moving on an
axle, and on which I had traced the principal circles; some large
potatoes hollowed out; a candle, and sometimes the skulls of my
scholars, served for the instruments by which I illustrated the
movements of the heavenly bodies, and of the earth itself. Proceeding
from one step to another, I pointed out the situation of different
countries on the chart of the world, and in separate maps, and took
pains to give some slight idea, as we went on, of the characteristics,
religion, customs, and history of each nation. These details fixed
topics of moment in their recollection. Up to this time I had been
astonished by the little interest they took, Christian-minded as they
were, in the subject of Christian missions; but, when they began to have
some idea of geography, I discovered that their former ignorance of this
science, and of the very existence of many foreign nations in distant
quarters of the globe, was the cause of such indifference. But as soon
as they began to learn who the people are who require to have the Gospel
preached to them, and in what part of the globe they dwell, they felt
the same concern for the circulation of the Gospel that other Christians
entertained. These new acquirements, in fact, enlarged their spirit,
made new creatures of them, and seemed to triple their very existence.
“In the end, I advanced so far as to give some lectures in geometry, and
this too produced a happy moral development.
“Lessons in music formed part of our evening employment, and those
being, like geography, a sort of amusement, they were regularly
succeeded by grave and edifying reading, and by such reflections as I
took care to suggest for their improvement.”
The unremitting labours of Neff destroyed his health, and he was at
length obliged to quit the inclement district in which he had
accomplished so much good. He lingered for some time in a state of great
debility, and died at Geneva on the 12th April, 1829.
We cannot better conclude this brief and imperfect notice of a truly
valuable and delightful book, than by the following observations of its
author on the character of the admirable individual whose noble labours
he has recommended to the imitation, not only of every Christian
minister, but of every one, however humble, who feels a desire to
advance his own real happiness and that of his fellow-creatures:--
“It was his anxiety to build up the Christian on a foundation where self
dependence, vain-glory, and imaginary merit were to have no place
whatever; and yet every act of his ministry proved that he set a just
value on knowledge and attainments. It was his labour of love to show,
that whenever any addition is made to our stock of knowledge, we not
only gain something in the way of enjoyment, but are laying up a store
for the improvement of our moral and religious feelings, and of our
general habits of industry. The spiritual advancement of his flock was
the great end and object of all his toils; but no man ever took a warmer
interest in the temporal comforts of those about him, and this he
evinced by instructing them in the management of their fields and
gardens, in the construction of their cottages, and in employing all his
own acquirements in philosophy and science for the amelioration of their
condition.... He so condescended to things of low estate, as to become a
teacher of a, b, c, not only to ignorant infancy, but to the dull and
unpliant capacities of adults. Beginning with the most tiresome
rudiments, he proceeded upwards, leading on his scholars methodically,
kindly, and patiently, until he had made them proficients in reading,
writing, and arithmetic, and could lead them into the pleasanter paths
of music, geography, history, and astronomy. His mind was too enlarged
to fear that he should be teaching his peasant boys too much. It was his
aim to show what a variety of enjoyments may be extracted out of
knowledge, and that even the shepherd and the goatherd of the
mountain-side will be all the happier and the better for every piece of
solid information that he can acquire.”
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Footnote 1:
The High Alps were originally peopled by Christians who fled to these
sterile and gloomy mountains and valleys to escape persecution for
their religious opinions. They were a hiding-place for centuries.
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