Biographical Memoir ofM. Hauy. 307 



to tlie exact sciences, that it is the patience of an energetic mind, 

 when it is invincible, that really constitutes genius. 



Rene Just Hauy, honorary Canon of Notre Dame, mem- 

 ber of the Royal Academy of Sciences of France, and of most 

 of the learned societies of Europe and America, was bom at St 

 Just, a small country town in the department de TOise, on the 

 ^th February 1743. He was the elder brother of the late 

 M. Haiiy, so well known as the inventor of a mode of instruct- 

 ing persons born blind. Their father was a poor linen manu- 

 facturer, who probably would not have been able to give them 

 any other profession than his own, had he not been assisted by 

 the generosity of others. 



The first improvement in the fortune of these two young 

 men, arose from a disposition to piety which the elder had 

 evinced from his earliest years, and which prevailed during his 

 whole life. 



While yet a mere child, he took singular pleasure in religious 

 ceremonies, and especially in church music ; for his musical 

 taste, that natural ally of the finer feelings, happily blended it- 

 self with his propensity to devotion. The prior of an abbey of 

 Premontres, the principal establishinent of his native place, 

 who had remarked his assiduous attendance on divine service, 

 took an opportunity one day of conversing with him, and per- 

 ceiving the vivacity of his intellect, made some of his monks 

 give him lessons. The progress of the child promptly respond- 

 ing to the care of his teachers, they became more and more in- 

 terested in him, and made liis mother understand, that, if she 

 could only take him for some time to Paris, she would ulti- 

 mately, through their recommendations, obtain some assistance 

 in enabling him to complete his studies. 



That excellent woman had scarcely sufficient means to enable 

 her to live a few months in the capital ; but she chose rather to 

 expose herself to all privations, than give up the expectations 

 which she had been taught to cherish with respect to her son. 

 Her parental affection, however, was long before it was aided 

 by any effectual encouragement. A young man, whose name 

 was one day to fill all Europe, found no other means of subsist- 

 ence than the office (rf a singing-boy in a church of the Quartier 



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