352 Cuvier as a Naturalist. 



garded as such, have been ascertained to belong to animals ; 

 those now found come from the fissures of rocks, and the soil of 

 caverns, dug by the hand of man. But these negative proofs 

 did not satisfy his mind ; persuaded that there ought to be 

 others of a positive kind, he sought to supply them from his- 

 tory. By submitting to a rigorous criticism the pretended do- 

 cuments which refer human societies to. a very remote period, he 

 demonstrates, or at least seems to us to demonstrate, that posi- 

 tive historical traditions do not go further back than five or six 

 thousand years, a date which various geological phenomena 

 equally concur in assigning to the last revolution ; and, that if 

 man existed at that revolution, it was not upon the present soil, 

 but upon a soil carried off by a catastrophy which has spared 

 only a few individuals of the different races now scattered over 

 the surface of the globe. 



Some recent works, which have acquired a just celebrity, and 

 which the premature death of their author has terminated in such 

 a deplorable manner, seem to prove a contrary doctrine. But 

 notwithstanding the authority of M. Champollion^s name, we 

 may be permitted to question the accuracy of his opinions, as 

 long as they remain without irrefragable proof, since M. Cuvier, 

 with his vast erudition, and almost instinctive perception of truth, 

 was of opinion that the reasons for assigning a more remote ol*igin 

 to society, did not rest on a secure foundation. 



The book containing these profound researches, immediately 

 acquired, like his Comparative Anatomy, Animal Kingdom, 

 and Anatomy of the Molluscge, a classical reputation, and will 

 no doubt support that character, as long as man seeks for enjoy- 

 ment in the study of nature. It will always form a model of 

 criticism and rigorous analysis, a perfect example of the talent 

 which consists in saying in a few words all that it is of import- 

 ance to know ; together with a power of condensation, which can 

 be possessed only by one having the most extensive knowledge 

 of things, and which M. Cuvier always displayed in the highest 

 degree. In these works there is neither redundancy nor digres- 

 sion, and there is likewise no dryness or omission. We have 

 seen young naturalists reading with pleasure the anatomy of the 

 molluscae, or the osteological descriptions in his researches on 

 fossil animals ; and we have witnessed students consulting what 



