Cuvier as a Naturalist. 361 



a fact which will lead its discoverer to a true general theory."" 

 This fact," added he, " is perhaps of small importance in itself, 

 but relative to the theory, it will become the principal fact, the 

 key-stone of the arch. It is necessary then to seek for it ; it is 

 necessary to make science advance, but care must be taken that 

 it does not advance the wrong way, as it has occasionally done, 

 and as some perhaps are making it do at the present time : it is 

 necessary to work, not with the design of supporting a theory, 

 because then the pre-occupied mind only perceives that which 

 favours it, but with the design of discovering the truth, because 

 from the truth these theories will flow, and true philosophical 

 principles, the truth in fact comprehending all philosophy. 



We repel, then, with indignation, the reproach which some 

 presumed to cast on him of being a mere collector of facts, — of 

 rough n^aterials which he could not use. Is a man to be regarded 

 as the enemy of all theory, when he asserts of any given one, 

 that it is false, and not in accordance with the facts ? Is he to 

 be regarded for ever unwilling to build, when he holds that the 

 present materials are. insuflicient, that they cannot be held to- 

 gether without cement ; that renewed efforts must be made, that 

 each for a time must labour diligently at his post, and then a 

 system will be reared. 



Why may not he who had such a vast acquaintance with facts, 

 if he could discover no general principle to explain them, why 

 may he not confess this without being accused of stupidity ? Are 

 ^e to take offence at him, because the authors of the systems 

 which he overturned, could not support them with satisfactory 

 proofs ; if, misled by their imaginations, they have followed 

 amusing speculations rather than nature, or if their false logic has 

 led them into erroneous conclusions ? Are we to be offended at 

 him, if all the systems of three thousand years have been over- 

 turned, and the observations alone have maintained their value? 

 And may not this fact (for fact it is) be announced, but that he 

 that announces it must be regarded as a man who is groping 

 in the dark ? 



It is also not a little singular that such statements are made 

 of a man who has been able to frame, with so much beauty, the 

 only laws hitherto furnished by comparative anatomy, the laws 

 of co-existence in organized beings, the laws of harmony be- 



