24 MEMOIR OF HUBER. 



although she would have readily suhmitted to their 

 will, if the man of her choice could have done with- 

 out her ; yet as he now required the constant attend- 

 ance of a person who loved him, nothing should pre- 

 vent her from becoming his wife. Accordingly, as 

 soon as she had attained the age which she imagined 

 gave her a right to decide for herself, she, after re- 

 fusing many brilliant offers, united her fate with that 

 of Huber. The union was a happy one. Their 

 mutual good conduct soon brought about the pardon 

 of their disobedience. In the affection and society of 

 his amiable and generous minded wife, the blind man 

 felt no want ; she was " eyes to the blind," " his 

 reader, his secretary and observer," a sharer in 

 his enthusiasm on the subject of natural science, and 

 an able assistant in his experiments. She was spared 

 to him forty years. " As long as she lived," said he 

 in his old age, " I was not sensible of the misfortune 

 of being blind." The last years of his life were 

 soothed by the affectionate attentions of his married 

 daughter, Madame de Molin,* whose residence was 

 at Lausanne, and to which place he had removed. 



It was about this period that he learned the ex- 

 istence in Mexico of Bees without stings ; and he 

 was, by the kind exertions of a friend, soon after 

 gratified with the present of a hive of that species. 



* We have to express our acknowledgments to this lady for 

 her ready kindness in permitting a friend in Geneva to have 

 a copy taken of the very interesting miniature likeness of her 

 venerable father in her possession, and which forms the Frontis- 

 Apiece to this volume. 



