[3] His father, intending to fit him for a career as a Bernese senator of the traditional type, was alarmed at the tone of his letters from Geneva and recalled his son to Bern.

[3] He began his political career as a member of the avoyer's council[5] and acted as the patron of the historian Johannes von Müller.

[3] ambiguity He published his Pastoral Letters (Lettres pastorales sur une contrée de la Suisse) in German in 1781.

[5] He was obliged to retire after taking part in a celebration of the storming of the Bastille in 1791[3] and—probably simply owing to his lack of military training—misdirecting the guards under his command when the area was threatened by the army of the Convention the next year.

[5] Instead, he is principally remembered for his social character—as a conversationalist, and as the friend, often the intimate companion of many of the more celebrated leaders of thought and action during his long life.