540 Ehge of Baron Cuvier, 



should be dear to us, that of pronouncing from this tribune a last 

 and solemn adieu to such of our friends as are successively called 

 upon to cross that awful passage, to which we are all so rapidly 

 approaching. 



Permit me, therefore, to occupy your attention this day with 

 one of these losses, the recollection of which must necessarily 

 press heavily on your thoughts. 



M. Cuvier has been removed from the sciences, the bounda- 

 ries of which he never ceased to enlarge ; from the public ad- 

 ministration, the highest duties of which have formed, during 

 thirty years, the object of his cares and unremitting labours ; 

 and, finally, from this assembly, of which he constituted one of 

 the brightest ornaments. Scarcely had you time to shew your 

 satisfaction at seeing him take the seat which he would have occu- 

 pied so worthily ; — and already he is no more ! He was merely 

 allowed to shew himself among you. How striking a proof of the 

 frailty, even of the noblest works of Providence, of which the year 

 just about to close has exhibited so many and so affecting instances! 



The homage which I have rendered to such a memory cannot 

 fail, I am aware, to evince my inability for the adequate perform- 

 ance of the task which I have undertaken. And it is due, 

 perhaps, to the Chamber, that an explanation should be given 

 of so unusual a proceeding on the part of him who has the ho- 

 nour to preside over it. 



I have sought in this assembly, which has so long gloried in 

 possessing among its members talents on which would have na- 

 turally devolved the duty of celebrating in M. Cuvier its strong- 

 est title to fame, those who had secured to themselves a perma- 

 nent reputation in literature and science ; the Lagranges, the 

 Fontanes, the Laplaces, the Lacepedes, the Casinis, have gone 

 before him to the grave, whither also M. Chaptal has so soon 

 followed. From another quarter, therefore, must the words, 

 which Europe has a right to expect, be pronounced over an in- 

 dividual who has so long and indisputably marched at its head; 

 but shall this be assigned as a reason for silence on the subject ? 

 No, gentlemen, this illustrious colleague belonged to us, as well 

 as to the whole French nation, by a multitude of conspicuous 

 excellences, which we are the more able, and we ought to be the 

 more wiUing, to celebrate, because, in rendering him almost of 

 universal usefulness, they brought him within the reach of all 



