MEMOIR 
OF 
BARON HALLER. 
Albert Yon Haller, the subject of this Memoir, 
was bom at Berne on the 16th of October, 1708. 
He was the son of Nicolas Haller, an Advocate of 
considerable eminence in his profession. His father 
had a numerous family, and Albert was the youngest 
of four sons. Though exceedingly delicate in in- 
fancy, yet, from his earliest years, he exhibited the 
greatest capacity for almost every species of litera- 
ture. His education, as well as that of his brothers, 
was entrusted to the care of a preceptor named 
Baillodz, and such was the severity of discipline 
exercised by this individual, that the accidental 
sight of him, at any future period of life, never 
failed to excite in Haller great uneasiness, and to 
renew the terrors of his youth. 
The early display of his talents was most extra- 
ordinary, and almost incredible ; for no sooner was 
he taught to write, than he began to arrange in 
alphabetic order all the words he learned in different 
B 
