24 
MEMOIR OF HUBER. 
although she would have readily submitted 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,” — “ bis 
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 ho 
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- 
piece to this volume. 
