126 Life and Writings of Francis Huher. 



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- 

 led 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 j he had learned from Gretry the counterpoint in a 

 dozen lessons, and 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 

 was sufficient : 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 him : 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 being 

 blind. 



The desire of maintaining his connection with absent friends, with- 

 out having recourse to a secretary, suggested the idea of a sort of 

 printing press for his own use ; he had it executed by his domestic, 

 Claude Lechet, whose mechanical 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 paper, 

 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 of it. These letters and some algebraic characters formed of 



* 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. 



