Eloge of Baron Cuvier. 169 



of finding here the calmness and courtesy which are so favour- 

 able to the proper management of debate, when reasons are 

 propounded and listened to on both sides, with that candour 

 which belongs to men whose whole views are turned towards the 

 public good, and who are in the habitual practice of mutually 

 honouring the purity of each other's motives. On this tranquil 

 arena, M. Cuvier found the parliamentary debates characterized 

 by the same tone, and nearly the same methodical arrangement, 

 as had been familiar to him in his scientific discussions, and his 

 knowledge would not have been less available than it had been in 

 the latter. Having been a member of many commissions during 

 the few days he spent among us, his colleagues can bear testi- 

 mony to his assiduity, and the scrupulous attention which he de- 

 voted to the business in which they were engaged. No record re- 

 mains of his participating in our labours, except a report on a 

 law relating to corn ; the time was pressing, and the report was 

 drawn up, I believe, in the course of a day. It is well known 

 that the subject is arduous and delicate; yet the few hours 

 which I have mentioned, were sufficient to enable him to bring 

 forward an exact and sufficiently extensive statement of facts 

 bearing upon the case, of the general principles which ought to 

 regulate it, of the laws which had applied to it for a certain 

 number of years, and finally of the considerations favourable to 

 the measure proposed, and which was adopted by the Cham- 

 ber. It would have been difficult for him to have done better, 

 even had he been allowed a greater length of time. But for 

 this little work, which to him was so easy, we should have had 

 nothing belonging to him in our collections. 



I am anxious before reaching the melancholy termination of 

 my task, to which, gentlemen, you will perceive I am now ap- 

 proaching, to endeavour to make you acquainted in some de- 

 gree with the private life of the illustrious individual, of whonv 

 I have hitherto spoken chiefly as a man of science and a politi- 

 cian ; — to shew him to you in a situation where his many amiable 

 qualities secured him the attachment of those who might other- 

 wise have felt awe in the presence of one possessed of such vast 

 capacity and universal knowledge. He has himself said, in 

 speaking of the interest excited by the elogiums of Fontenelle and 

 Condorcet, that it is not extracts from works of celebrated men. 



