FRANCIS HUBER. 197 



an uneducated peasant, yet his faithful friend and constant and 

 efficient assistant ; next his wife ; and last, not least, his son, 

 P. Huber, afterwards celebrated for his own researches into 

 the history of ants. 



In the circumstances attendant on Huberts marriage we meet 

 with one of those pleasant romances of reality which occasion- 

 ally vary the monotony of every-day life. At an early age, 

 the sight of our persevering naturalist fell a sacrifice to minute 

 and intense observation exercised in his darling study. As 

 with our prince of poets, "a drop serene""* had " quenched' 

 his ( ' orbs '' of vision ; nor would he for their recovery un- 

 dergo the usual operation. Previous to this affliction he had 

 formed an attachment to Mademoiselle Aimee Pullein, daughter 

 of a Swiss magistrate, who opposed the marriage of the lovers 

 on the ground of the young man's blindness. No sooner, how- 

 ever, did the lady arrive at an age which gave her (at least in 

 her own opinion) a right of judging for herself, than (after 

 refusing offers of greater promise) she united her lot with that 

 of the blind yet loving Huber, with whom forty years of sub- 

 sequent happiness, wherein she was his secretary, his observer, 

 and the sharer, not only of his researches, but of the enthu- 

 siasm with which he followed them, gave her no cause to 

 repent her choice. Even when deprived by death of his affec- 

 tionate helpmate, the blind and then aged Huber was not left 

 destitute of woman's supporting tenderness, which, in the 



* Gutta serena. 



