MEMOIR OF BARON HALLER. 61 



was a retreat for the sciences, and every thing 

 within its walls was consecrated to their cultivation. 

 His pupils, who, in great numher, studied under 

 his direction in his library and museum, his children, 

 and even Madame Haller herself, who had learned 

 to sketch and paint, that she might render herself 

 useful to him, his friends, and even his fellow 

 citizens made it their study to contribute to his 

 labours. This impulse was communicated far and 

 near ; he himself collected all, laboured for all, and 

 animated all. Thus placed in the centre, every 

 thing again reacted upon him. His imagination 

 usually presented to him every thing in fair and 

 bright colours, and his sensibility, which was ex- 

 treme, did not permit him to view any thing with 

 indifference. Though habitually serious and re- 

 flecting, still the vivacity of his genius and the 

 variety of his information did not allow the exhi- 

 bition of his character to be always the same. He 

 was sometimes the subject of rapid alternations of 

 pleasure and of pain. This inequality was fre- 

 quently manifested even in society, into which, 

 however, he but seldom entered ; his conversation, 

 however, was at all times learned and pointed, and 

 such was the constitution of his mind that he could 

 always give even to minute objects the most acute 

 and profound investigation. He had long been in 

 the habit of making extracts of all that he read, 

 which extracts were arranged according to their 

 subjects, and he could thus readily use them when 

 required. Those who laboured under him followed 



