118 Life and Writings of Francis Huber. 
talent ;* he excelled so much in the cutting out of landscapes, that 
he seemed to have been the creator of this art; his sculpture was — 
better than that which those who are simply amateurs are able to ex- 
ecute,} and to this diversity of talent he joined the taste and the art 
of observing the manners of the animal creation. His work on the 
flight of birds of prey{ is still consulted with interest by naturalists. 
John Huber transmitted almost all his tastes to his son. The latter 
attended from his childhood the public lectures at the college, and 
under the guidance of good masters he acquired a predilection for 
literature which the conversation of his father served to develope. 
He owed to the same paternal inspiration his taste for natural histo- 
ry, and he derived his fondness for science from the lessons of 
De Saussure, and from manipulations in the laboratory of one of his 
relatives who ruined himself in searching for the philosopher’s stone. 
_ His presecity of talent was manifest in his attention to nature at an 
age.w are scarcely aware of its existence, and in the evi- 
dence of deep: feeling at an age when others hardly betray emotions. 
It seemed that, destined to a Soa to the most cruel of priva- 
tions, he made, as it were instinctively, a provision of recollections 
and feelings, for the remainder of his days. At the age of fifteen, 
his general health and his sight began to be impaired. The ardor 
with which he pursued his Sebers: and his pleasures, the earnestness — 
with which he devoted his days to study, and his nights to the read- 
ing of romances by the feeble light of a lamp, and for which, when 
deprived of its use, he sometimes substituted the’light of the moon, 
were, it is said, the causes which threatened at once, the loss. of 
health and of sight. His father took him to Paris to consult Trou- 
chin on account of his health, and Venzel on the condita af: his 
eyes. 
With a view to his general health, Tronchin sent him to 2 villags 
(Stain) in the neighborhood of Paris, in order that he might be free 
from all Sains occupations. ‘There he practised the life of 
simple peasant, followed the plough and diverted himself with all pe 
“* Several pictures of game, a kind in which he ee and his own portrait, are 
in the Museum of fine arts, given by his fam 
TA trait of his talent is preserved, which is pa TD = his character. He is 
senting a piece of bread to his dog, in such a way as to make him bite it off 0 on a 
sides, and there issues from it a very striking bust of Voltaire. 
PP Secs ar sur le vol des ciseaux de proie; par M. Jean Huber. Geneve, in 
