348 Ehge of Baroii Cuvier. 



During his absence from Paris the Institute was reorganized ; 

 perpetual secretaries were appointed, and M. Cuvier learned 

 that he was elected to fill that office in the class of Natural 

 Sciences. It was in this capacity that be drew up, in 1808, his 

 historical report on the Progress of the Natural Sciences from • 

 the year 1789. We were present when it was read to the Em- 

 peror in the Council of State ; and such scenes are never effaced 

 from the memory. Napoleon had asked merely a report, and, 

 under that unassuming title, the skilful reporter has raised a 

 monument, which stands hke a Pharos between two ages, shew- 

 ing at once the road which had been traversed, and that which 

 ought still to be pursued. In the course of the same year, 

 1808, the Imperial University having been added to the insti- 

 tutions established since 1800, M. Cuvier was nominated one 

 of the councillors of that body for life. In 1809 and 1811, he 

 was commissioned to establish academies in those parts of the 

 Italian provinces annexed to the empire ; and the important ar- 

 rangements which he made at Turin, Genoa, and Pisa, were so 

 well adapted to the wants and conveniences of these towns, that 

 they have, for the most part, survived the existence of the 

 French power by which they were introduced. In 1811 he un- 

 dertook a similar mission into Holland and the Hans Towns, 

 where the same success attended him. In 1813 he was sent to 

 Rome, in order to organize a university. " M. Cuvier etait ' 

 Protestant ; j'ignore si la reflection en fut faite, mais elle ne fut 

 certainement amenee, dans le cours de cette mission, par aucun 

 de ses actes. Son respect pour les croyances qu'il put jamais 

 sVn ecarter, et il etait tolerant, non pour obeir a tel systema 

 philosophique ou politique, mais par une conviction qui emanait 

 de la conscience." 



These successive journeys into so many different parts of 

 Europe, could not fail to be very profitable to such an ob- 

 server, and the intimate connexion which they were the means 

 of establishing with distinguished men of all countries, enabled 

 him to amass valuable materials for every kind of work in which 

 he engaged. His talents for administration, however, had not 

 escaped the penetration of Napoleon, and he received at Rome 

 the news of his being appointed a Master of Requests. 



Once a member of the Council of State, he was not long in 



