8 Biographical Memoir of M. Halle. 



shewing his generosity, he was at pains to find others. I do 

 not merely say that he accepted nothing from his professional 

 brethren or his pupils — this were a common case ; but he also 

 refused any thing from artists, because, being the son and 

 grandson, the nephew and grandnephew, of well-known painters, 

 he considered himself as one of their family ; he received no- 

 thing from churchmen, because, if they had only what was ne- 

 cessary for them, they ought not to reduce it — and if they had 

 more, it belonged to the poor. Such reasons he never wanted ; 

 one almost required to be privileged, in order to make him ac- 

 cept a recompense ; but there was another privilege, the great- 

 est of all in his eyes — that of persons who were unable to recom- 

 pense him. They were preferred to every other. Returning 

 home one day exhausted with fatigue, he was told that a lady 

 had come to consult him. He sent to request her to apply to 

 some of his brethren. But she dared not, because she had no- 

 thing to give. " Oh ! in that case," said he, " I have no right 

 to send her away." 



This generosity pervaded his whole conduct. He always 

 gave up the whole profits of his works to the young men who 

 had assisted him in collecting materials for them. Being en- 

 gaged to draw up the new Codex, what was assigned him by 

 the government for this labour, he laid out in completing the 

 Cabinet of the Faculty. 



Happy in the good he did, in his fortune, and in his 

 family, M. Halle seemed moreover to possess the blessing 

 which increases the enjoyment of every other. His health was 

 most robust : only sometimes he was troubled by oppressions 

 arising from an excess of blood, but they were speedily removed 

 by bleeding. A stone, however, suddenly manifested itself in 

 his bladder. At this critical moment, when so many other men 

 would have thought only of themselves, his careful charity re- 

 mained unaltered. Before having the operation performed, he, 

 with difficulty, visited some poor individuals whom he had main- 

 tained, fearing that his long absence would seem to them to 

 proceed from forgetfulness. The operation was successful ; but 

 there took place a new congestion in his chest, which, almost 

 suddenly, carried him off on the 11th February 1822. He was 

 pnly sixty-eight years old ; and if the ingenious modes lately 



