59 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



with time, till after his first American trip he comes back, say his 

 friends, " ipsis Americanis Americanior." 



Lyell's was a life of smooth success. It is wholly wanting in any- 

 thing like plot-interest, because all honors came so easily to him. In 

 the year in which he took his degree he was made a fellow of the Lin- 

 nsean and Geological Societies. In 1823 he became secretary of the 

 latter. Already he is a fast friend with Buckland and Mantell ; and 

 his sisters are his helpers in keeping his museum and the confidantes 

 of his scientific theories or discoveries. About this time he makes 

 many journeys to Paris, becoming familiar not only with French as a 

 language, but with such men as Cuvier, Humboldt, Brongniart, and 

 Constant Prevost. He mixes in all the best salons of that shameful 

 period. Some of his letters are guarded, lest he should be " treated 

 like Bowring, with the Bastile " ; but, when he gets a chance of send- 

 ing a sheet or two otherwise than by post, his pictures of the faithless, 

 cynical, bigoted, irreligious Paris of the Restoration are vivid and 

 graphic in every line. Humboldt confides to him his notions about 

 Cuvier, who has dabbled in " the dirty pool of politics " : 



His soirees are mostly attended by English (says Humboldt) ; the truth is 

 the French savants have in general cut him. His continual changing over to 

 each new party that came into power at length disgusted almost all, and you 

 know it has been long a charge against men of science that they were pliant 

 tools in the hands of princes and ministers, and might be turned which way they 

 pleased. That such a man as Cuvier should have given a sanction to such an 

 accusation was felt by all as a deep wound to the whole body. And what on 

 earth was Cuvier to gain by intermeddling with politics? . . . You well know 

 with what contempt the old aristocracy of all countries are apt to regard all new 

 men of whatever abilities. We feel that but too much in Germany ; but here it 

 is a principle of party to carry such prejudices to the utmost length. Cuvier's 

 situation was a proud one while he stood in the very foremost rank of men of 

 science in France; but when he betrayed the weakness of coveting ribbons, 

 crosses, titles, and court favor, he fell down to the lowest among his new com- 

 petitors. 



However, after saying so much at second-hand, Lyell adds his own 

 opinion that Cuvier is more liberal and independent than most French- 

 men. He dares to speak well of Napoleon, the sun that has set : 



"We must not forget (he says) that Baron Humboldt and he are the two 

 great rivals in science, for Laplace and the mathematicians do not come in con- 

 tact with them. Humboldt's birth places him on the vantage-ground; and 

 Cuvier perhaps tries to compensate this by a little political power. As for his 

 rutting so often, defendit numerus; what French politician could throw the first 

 stone at him? Humboldt's family is noble and ancient in Germany ; his elder 

 brother a man now in great power there. His talents entitle him to regard with 

 the contempt which lie expresses, and I have no doubt feels, mere rank ; but we 

 may say of him, as Chateaubriand said of our English peers, that he is well aware 

 that, while he gets too liberal, he is in no danger of losing the station and the 

 advantages which his birth insures for him. 



