MEMOIR OF BARON HALLER. 61 
was a retreat for tire sciences, and every tiling 
within its walls was consecrated to their cultivation. 
His pupils, who, in great number, studied under 
his direction in his library and museum, his children, 
and even Madame Haller herself, who had learned 
to sketch and paint, that she might render herself 
useful to him, his friends, and even his fellow 
citizens made it their study to contribute to his 
labours. This impulse was communicated far and 
near ; he himself collected all, laboured for all, and 
animated all. Thus placed in the centre, every 
thing again reacted upon him. His imagination 
usually presented to him every thing in fair and 
bright colours, and his sensibility, which was ex- 
treme, did not permit him to view any thing with 
indifference. Though habitually serious and re- 
flecting, still the vivacity of his genius and the 
variety of his information did not allow the exhi- 
bition of his character to be always the same. He 
was sometimes the subject of rapid alternations of 
pleasure and of pain. This inequality was fre- 
quently manifested even in society, into which, 
however, he hut seldom entered ; his conversation, 
however, was at all times learned and pointed, and 
such was the constitution of his mind that he could 
always give even to minute objects the most acute 
and profound investigation. He had long been in 
the habit of making extracts of all that he read, 
which extracts were arranged according to their 
subjects, and he could thus readily use them when 
required. Those who laboured under him followed 
