Life and Writings of Francis Huber. 125 
an honorable rank by the sagacity and precision of his researches ; 
but it is plainly perceptible, in reading his works, that his brilliant im- 
agination urged him toward the region of general ideas. Unprovided 
with terms of comparison, he acne them in that theory of final 
causes which is gratifying to every expanded and religious mind, be- 
cause it appears to furnish a reason for a multitude of facts, the em- 
ployment of which, however, as is well known, is prone to lead the 
mind into error ; but we must do him the justice to acknowledge that 
the use he makes of them is always confined within the limits of phil- 
osophical doubt and observation. He had, in early life, derived ideas 
of this general nature from the Natural Theology of Derham, and 
from the writings of his friend Ch. Bonnet; they found a ready re- 
ception in his sensitive and elevated soul, which loved to admire the 
author of nature in the harmony of his works. His style i is, in gen- 
eral, clear and elegant ; always retaining the precision requisite to 
the didactic, it possesses the attraction which a poetic imagination 
can readily confer upon all subjects ; but one thing which particular- 
ly distinguishes it, and which we should least expect, is, that he de- 
scribes facts in a manner so picturesque, that in him, we fan- 
cy that we can see the very objects which the author, alas, was never 
able to see! In reflecting on this singular quality in the style of a 
blind man, the difficulty appeared to Re aelpedd ac thinking of the ef- 
forts which he must have made in arranging and connecting the state- 
ments of his assistants, so as to form in his own mind a complete im= 
~ age of the facts. We who enjoy, often with so much indifference, 
those invaluable senses by which we are enabled to embrace’ at once 
such a diversity of objects, and so many parts of the same object, of- 
ten neglect to study those parts upon which others are dependent, 
and which ought to claim the first place in the Sa onan our de- 
scriptions are often confused, precisely because our impressions of 
objects are made simultaneously and without effort. But Huber 
was obliged to listen with attention to the recitals of others, to class 
them methodically to reproduce an image of the object by his own 
conceptions ; and his written narration, after this laborious operation, 
presents the subject to our view, under all the aspects which have en- 
lightened his own. I venture also to add that we find in his descrip- 
tions so many masterly touches, as to justify the conclusion, that if he 
had retained his sight he would have been like his father, his broth- 
er* and his son, a skillful painter. 4, 
oe or 
* Jean Daniel Huber, a skillful painter of animals. 
