1831-32.] ETIENNE GEOFFROY SAINT-HILArRE. 45 



life on earth. Thanks to his genius and his unrivalled 

 talent of exposition, Cuvier won before the Academy ; 

 but it was plain that the general public was against 

 him and in favour of Geoffrey. During the last two 

 years of Cuvier's life the discussion was continued, not 

 before the Academy, but in public lectures at the Col- 

 lege de France. Cuvier, with renewed vigour, assailed 

 the unity of organic composition and any general con- 

 ception in natural history. As Isidore Geoffroy says : 

 " Disciple, Cuvier ne pouvait 1'etre de personne, et par 

 les tendances propres de son esprit, moins de Geoffroy 

 Saint-Hilaire que de tout autre ; il devint done adver- 

 saire." We may say, to the credit of Geoffroy, that his 

 admiration of Cuvier was not diminished, and at his 

 tomb, with great emotion, and in words of sincerity 

 which had their source in his heart, he proclaimed 

 him "le Maitre a tous ! " 



Agassiz felt strongly the influence of Cuvier ; he had 

 repeated occasion to see and compare Cuvier and 

 Geoffroy, and the superiority of Cuvier was so unde- 

 niable, that many years afterward, when the question of 

 fixity of species, descent, and succession of forms again 

 arose with Darwin's " Origin of Species," he did not 

 hesitate for one moment to oppose a doctrine so full of 

 hypothesis and so contrary to the teachings of his 

 master : " le Maitre a tous ! ' Agassiz had promptly 

 received the good will and protection of Cuvier, and it 

 is most probable that, if Cuvier's life had been spared, he 

 would have obtained, through his influence, a professor- 

 ship or some place in Paris. For Agassiz was determined 

 not to be a country physician, but to support himself 



