THE 



EDINBURGH NEW 

 PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. 



Historical Eloge of the late Sir Joseph Banks, Baronet, Pre- 

 sident of the Royal Society. By Baron Cuvier *. 



X. HE works which the distinguished individual of whom we 

 have now to speak has left behind him, are confined to a few 

 pages, and these of but little importance ; yet his name will 

 shine with lustre in the history of philosophy. Impelled 

 by an ardent love of science, in his youth, abandoning the 

 pleasures which an independent fortune held out to him, 

 he braved the dangers of the sea, and the rigours of the 

 most opposite climates. During a long series of years, he 

 made use of all the advantages which affluent circumstances, 

 and the friendship of men in power, afforded him, for its 

 benefit; lastly, and it forms his chief claim to our respect, 

 he always regarded those who laboured for its advancement, as 

 having an acquired right to his interest and assistance. During 

 the war of the revolution, which carried its ravages into almost 

 every part of the two continents, the name of Sir Joseph Banks 

 was every where a palladium for those of our countrymen who 

 devoted themselves to useful researches. If their collections 

 were seized, it was only necessary for them to apply to him to 

 have them returned; if their persons were detained, the time 



• Read to the Royal Academy of Sciences of France on the 2d Aprif 

 1821. 



OCTOBER— DECEMBER 1826. At 



