2»'« S. X. Nov. 17. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



399 



ziegeuner, from Ziehen, far viagfrio. Wachter says 

 " zigeuner, clngari, ortum a Zogaris, qui circa 

 Caucasum ut qiiidain volunt. Ita Martinius in 

 voce Zigeuni." R. S. Chaenock. 



MOXTHLY FEUILLETOX ON FRENCH BOOKS. 



George Ciivier. E'loges Ilistoriques precedes de FE'loge 

 de VAutcur, par M. Flourens, Secretaire Perpituel de 

 VAcademie des Sciences. 8vo. Paris, Ducrocq. 



Under the title Bibliotheque Classique des Celihr'ites 

 Contemporaines, M. Ducrocq has had the happy idea of 

 reprinting, in a cheap but elegant form, a series of 

 works composed by the leading French writers of the 

 nineteenth century in the various branches of science and 

 literature. The greater majority of the publications ad- 

 mitted into this collection are either out of print now, or 

 onlj' to be found amidst the voluminous aud expensive 

 memoirs of the Institut ; we think, therefore, that M. 

 Ducrocq has rendered a true service to literature by com- 

 mencing his Bibliotheque Classique, and if the series is 

 prepared with judiciousness and discrimination, it cannot 

 tiaii to meet with great and deserved success. Up to the 

 present time we have ample reason to be satisfied with 

 the rich banquet provided for us b}- M. Ducrocq, and a 

 brief notice of the several volumes now before us will 

 give us the opportunity' of recommending them to the 

 attention of our readers. 



Baron Cuvier, it is well known, was equally celebrated 

 as a writer and a naturalist. If he revolutionised the 

 whole world of natural history by his discoveries ; if he 

 created, so to saj', by his researches and his powers of 

 observation, the science of comparative anatomy, the 

 beauty and elegance of his style entitle him likewise to 

 a high place in the system of pure literature ; and when 

 we compare him to his predecessors at the Academic des 

 Scie7ices, Fontenelle and D'Alembert, we think that the 

 parallel must be to his advantage. 



_ The custom of delivering, on public occasions, a kind of 

 biographic eloge of some individual who has rendered 

 himself illustrious b}' his genius or his talents, is one of 

 the standard rules of the various sections which compose 

 the Instilut de Ft ynce, and to the perpetual secretary de- 

 volves the task of preparing these essays or panegyrics. 

 Even the dullest, the most stupid, author could not help 

 making something out of the lives of men such as Par- 

 mentier. Sir Humphry Davy, Berthollet, and Haiiy : but 

 when that author is Cuvier, the essaj' rises to the pro- 

 portions of true eloquence, and becomes a masterpiece of 

 literature. The volume we are now examining contains 

 ten of those eloges, forming a sort of sketch of the pro- 

 gi'ess made hy natural history since the beginning of 

 the nineteenth century. Prefixed is an essay on the life 

 and labours of Cuvier himself, from the pen of M. Flou- 

 rens, and which deserves by its importance a distinct 

 notice. In detailing the services rendered to science by 

 the great naturalist, M. Flourens very properly dwells 

 upon the excellence of the method Avith which his name 

 must ever be connected. " Le besoin des methodes, " saj's 

 Cuvier's biographer, "nait ^galement pour notre esprit, 

 et du besoin qu'il a de distinguer pour connaitre, et du 

 besoin qu'il a de gendraliser ce qu'il connait, pour pouvoir 

 embrasser et se representor nettement le plus grand nom- 

 bre possible de faits et d'idees." Now, the slightest at- 

 tention paid to the systems adopted by Linnaus and the 

 other naturalists who preceded Cuvier will show that 

 these men had merely satisfied themselves with distin- 

 guishing, enumerating the various facts that came under 

 their notice ; thej' never rose to generalisation, they 



never attempted to study the great relation of facts to 

 one another ; their ideas of method were partial and one- 

 sided. Improvements will no doubt be made, nay, have 

 been made, in Cuvier's system of classification; errors 

 will be corrected and fresh discoveries brought to light: 

 but still the illustrious author of -the Z>/scours sur les Revo- 

 lutions du Globe must retain through posterity the honour 

 of having established upop its true basis method as applied 

 to natural science. 



M. Flourens verj' accurately remarks that the qualities 

 which distinguished Cuvier as a scientific observer are to 

 he found in his E'loges Historiques, farther enhanced by 

 the beauties of literary style. " C'est la meme sagacite, 

 le meme art de comparer, de subordonner, de remonter h 

 ce que les faits out de plus general, port^ dans un autre 

 champ." So singular a combination of intellectual excel- 

 lences are not often met with in the history of humanity, 

 and this fact gives additional value to the work we have 

 thus imperfectly described. 



Daunou. Discours sur VE'tat des Letlres au XIIl^ Siecle, 

 precede d'une Notice s«r Z'^Jifenr, par M. Gu^rard, Membre 

 de I'Acad^mie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres. 8°. 

 Paris. Ducrocq. 



The second volume of M. Ducrocq's collection takes us 

 to literature, and to an epoch when the intellectual life 

 of France was beginning to manifest itself, and to break 

 the fetters of barbarism and of prejudice. With the his- 

 tory of the thirteenth centurj' the learned publisher has 

 verj' properly' associated the name of M. Daunou, who 

 has perhaps done more than anybody else, towards the 

 beginning of the present centur.v, to elucidate the origin 

 of modern literature, and to open up the rich treasures 

 which are contained in the works of the uncultivated 

 writers who flourished during the epoch intervening be- 

 tween the reign of Charlemagne and the Reformation of 

 Lutlier. The name of M. Daunou is still comparatively 

 unknown in England, because, on this side of the Chan- 

 nel, the history of mediajval literature has never been 

 neglected, and because the savants who have devoted 

 their energies to researches of , that kind amongst us 

 have obtained a reputation which far exceeds even that 

 of the French professor ; but we must transport ourselves 

 to the latitude of Paris, if we would appreciate M. Dau- 

 nou as we ought, and think of that terrible epoch when 

 everything connected with the past was destroyed, and 

 when before the blast of the revolutionary tempest lite- 

 rature, science, history, manuscripts and state papers, 

 poems and cartularies, missals and fabliaux, were alike 

 swept away as useless and worse than useless. 



Previous to the overthrowing of the old French mo- 

 narchj', a vigorous impulse had been given to history 

 and to erudition by the celebrated Benedictines of the 

 Congregation of Saint Maur. However justl}' the other 

 monastic orders can be taxed for ignorance, sloth, aud 

 corruption, it is quite certain that the Benedictines were 

 quite above accusations of that kind ; and the names of 

 Martene, Durand, Mabillon, Montfaucon, and D'Atherey, 

 taken almost at random from the annals of the illustrious 

 confraternitj', recall at once to our minds monuments of 

 research, of patience, and of learning, which no one at 

 the present day has ever ventured to imitate. Amongst 

 the great works begun by the Benedictines we may name 

 the Recueil des Historiens de France, and the Histoire 

 Litteraire de la France — two productions of stupendous 

 magnitude and of acknowledged excellence. These un- 

 dertakings were stopped, like so many useful things, by 

 the revolutionary movement of 1793 ; and the National 

 Convention, which thought that the universe could very 

 well get on without God, deemed likewise that the hap- 

 piness of a free people had nothing whatever to do with 

 the refinement of taste, or the pursuits of learning. For- 



