Baron Cuvier's Historical Eloge of Baron Ramond. 15 



course * in which he gave an account of the history of those 

 living plants, vi^hich " on the fields of perpetual ice, under the 

 douhle shelter of the snow of the earth, do not perhaps see 

 the light above ten times in a century, and then perform their 

 circle of vegetation in the short space of a few weeks, only to 

 resume their sleep in a winter of several years ; and of those 

 common plants, separated in a manner from the rest, but whose 

 presence is explained by the debris of a rock or of a hut. Man 

 in bringing there his flocks, brings with him without knowing 

 it, the birds and insects of the valleys. He returns to it per- 

 haps no more, but these wild regions have received in an 

 instant the indelible impress of his power." 



That same ardour which he had infused into his style, ani- 

 mated also his mode of speaking, and it was not less interesting 

 to hear him read his productions, than to be present at those 

 animated conversations in which he made his ideas original by 

 expressions more original still. Many a time did he produce 

 this effect among ourselves, when about 1800 he returned from 

 the foot of the Pyrenees. The man who was soon to arrive 

 at the supreme power, and who vvas then often present at our 

 meetings, had no sooner heard him than he felt how important 

 it would be to attach to his government a person of such 

 powers. At the establishment of the prefectures he offered 

 him one of them ; but in these times it was still permitted to 

 refuse a favour, and M. Ramond, appointed to the legislative 

 body by the department where he had enjoyed so many plea- 

 sures, preferred a situation which separated him only for 

 six weeks from his beloved mountains. He was not, how* 

 e\er, forgotten, and the less so as it was readily perceived 

 that he was not a man who would allow his thoughts to be 

 dictated to him, and that whatever were his sentiments, he 

 knew how to impress them most effectually on the minds of 

 others. Too skilful not to penetrate the flimsy veil which 

 yet covered the projects of his master, too frank to conceal any 

 thing which he did perceive, he was not inferior in the ener- 

 getic vivacity of his wit to a celebrated lady, (Madame de 



* Printed in vol. iv. of the Amtalea du Museum, et Histoire Natu- 

 relle, p. 395. 



