296 The L'tfe and Writings of Francia liubtr. 



It was the last homage which he rendered to his old friends, to 

 whom he had devoted so many laborious researches, to whom 

 he owed his celebrity, and, what is more, his happiness. No- 

 thing of any importance has been added to their history since 

 his time. Naturalists of unimpaired vision have found nothing 

 of consequence to subjoin to the observations of a brother who 

 was deprived of sight. 



Huber retained his faculties to the last. He was loving and 

 beloved to the end of his days. At the age of eighty-one, he 

 wrote to one of his friends, — There is a time when it is impossible 

 to remain neglectful; it is, when separating gradually from 

 each other, we may reveal to those we love, all that esteem, ten- 

 derness, and gratitude, have inspired us with towards them. 

 * * * / say to you alone, adds he, farther on, that resigna- 

 Hon and serenity are blessings which have not been refused. 

 He wrote these hnes on the 20th of December last ; on the 22d 

 he was no more ; his life became extinct, without pain or agony, 

 while in the arms of his daughter. 



I have always admired the sagacity of his researches, his re- 

 solute perseverance, his love of truth, and his resignation at once 

 mild and stoical. I loved his amiable conversation, and his 

 benevolent disposition. While living, I consecrated his name, 

 to the gratitude of naturalists, by giving it to a genus of beau- 

 tiful trees from Brazil *. I have now endeavoured to render 

 the last homage to his memory ; happy shall I be, if those who 

 have known and loved him find the portrait correct, — if young 

 people learn from his example tlpe value of resolute determina- 

 tion in the direction and concentration of labour ; and especially, 

 if those who are subject to the same misfortune should learn, 

 by the example of Huber, not to yield to discouragements on 

 account of their condition, but to imitate his admirable philoso- 

 phy.— 5i6. Univ. Fev. 1832. 



• Huberia laurina. Memoir on the Melastomaceae, p. Gl, pi. 10, Prodr. ,3, 

 p. 167. 



