126. Life and Writings of Francis Huber. 
His taste for the fine arts, unable to derive pleasure from forms; 
extended to sounds; he loved poetry, but he was more especially 
endowed with a strong inclination for music. His taste for it might 
be called innate, and it furnished him with a great source of recrea- 
tion throughout his life. He had an agreeable voice, and was initia- 
ted in his childhood in the charms of Italian music. ‘The method by 
which he studied tunes deserves to be related, as it may be useful to 
others. ‘It was not by simple recollection,” his son writes me, “ that 
he retained airs ; he had learned from Grétry the counterpoint ina 
dozen lessons, aia in studying by himself, he had become an able 
harmonist. In teaching him an air, we first dictated to him the base 
of a musical phrase ; he arranged it according to the succession of 
tones; then came the song which he executed with his voice}; a 
phrase thus disposed he understood perfectly, and a single repetition 
t: we proceeded to the second, and so on to the end of 
the piece, which -he would then repeat ‘from one end to the other 
without tiring the patience of any one who dictated to an he owed 
much in this: respect to the complaisance of his sister.’ 
His musical talents rendered him in his youth extremely popular, 
and after his infirmity, it afforded him many agreeable relations, 
among whom may be mentioned those which he held, at an advanced 
age, with a female noted for her wit, and between whom there was 
the double sympathy of being passionately fond of music and peed 
blind. 
The desire of maintaining his connection with absent friends, with ; 
out having recourse to a secretary, suggested the idea of a sort 
printing press for his own use ; he had it executed by his domestic, 
Claude Léchet, whose shedininiedl talents he had cultivated, as he 
had before done those of Francis Burnens for natural history. In 
cases properly numbered, were placed small prominent types which 
he arranged in his hand. Over the lines thus composed he placed 
a sheet blackened with a peculiar ink, then a sheet of white pape? 
and with a press which he moved with his feet, he was enabled to 
print a letter which he folded and sealed himself, happy in the kind 
of independence which he hoped by this means to acquire.* But 
the difficulty of putting this press into action, prevented the habitual . 
use ne it. These letters and some algebraic characters formed 
* I am indebted for these details, as well as others, here and there stated, to his 
nephew M. J. Huber, who is distinguishing himself by his literary talents. 
