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Biographical Memoir of M. Hauy. 229 



had conferred upon his country ; but he retained it under three 

 kings and ten ministers. Why should the men who commonly 

 for so short a time dispose the lot of others, sometimes forget 

 that such acts on their part will remain in history much more 

 surely than any of the ephemeral detmis of their administra- 

 tion? 



This was not the only trial which M. Haiiy had to undergo. 

 Not long after, the laws of finance made him- lose a pension 

 when he was no longer capable of active exertion ; and his bro^ 

 ther, who had been taken to Russia to extend the knowledge of 

 the means of instructing the blind, returned without realizing 

 any of the promises that had been held out to him, and with a 

 constitution so broken down that he fell entirely to the charge 

 of his family. 



In this manner did M. Haiiy, towards the end of his days, 

 see himself almost reduced to the extreme indigence which he 

 had already experienced. He would have required all his reli- 

 gious resignation to support these reverses, had not his young 

 friends taken care to conceal from him the embarrassments 

 which his affairs occasioned them. Their attentions were in a 

 manner doubled when he lost the means of manifesting his gra- 

 titude. The love of his pupils, and the esteem of all Europe, 

 also contributed without doubt to console him. The enlighten- 

 ed men of all ranks who arrived at Paris, hastened to pay their 

 respects to him ; and, almost on the eve of his death, have we 

 seen the heir of a great kingdom go repeatedly to converse at 

 his bedside, and express his esteem for him in the most affect- 

 ing terms. But the most substantial support which he found, 

 arose from the thought, that, in the midst of his glory and good 

 fortune, he had not renounced either the customs of his college, 

 or those of his native village. He had never changed the hours 

 of his meals, nor those of his rising and sleeping. Every day 

 he took nearly the same exercise, walked in the same places, and 

 on his walks he embraced all opportunities of exerciang his be- 

 nevolence : he conducted strangers whom he saw embarrassed, 

 gave them tickets of admission to his collections ; and many per- 

 sons experienced these good offices at his hands, who never ima- 

 gined of whom they received them. His old-fashioned cloth- 

 ing, his simple ^r, and his always excessively modest language, 



