MEMO R OF DUCEOTAY DE BLAINVILLE. 185 



point, by a bappy inspiration of genius, be discerns in nature wbicb has per- 

 isbed the beings wbicb are wanting in nature as it exists,* and, witb surprising 

 skill, be intercalates among living species tbe fossil species ; tbus asserting, and, 

 first among naturalists, discovering to us tbe unity of the animal kingdom. 

 That kingdom is therefore one, and tbe unity of tbat kingdom seems tbe first 

 demonstrated point in tbe unity of creation. 



Having tbus stated tbe opposite opinions of the two authors, let us turn to 

 their methods, wbicb will be found not less opposed. Cuvier follows facts, 

 alike resolved to wait for them however slowly they may arrive, and to accept 

 tbe result wbicb they yield him, whatever it may be : whether tbe theory of 

 successive creations, if species continue to be found everywhere separated and 

 superposed, or tbe theory of a single and simultaneous creation, should it be 

 found eventually tbat they occur anywhere intermingled and confounded. 

 M. de Blainville assumes a great fact, which he transforms into a principle : tbe 

 fact of the unity nf the animal kingdom, and from that unity be boldly deduces 

 tbe unity of creation. Tbus there is, on one side, always tbe experimental 

 method, witb its process sure and its results uncertain; on the other, always 

 tbe dogmatic method, witb its result presented as certain, but obtained by a 

 process which is not sure. 



Tbe human mind in making use of methods and judging them has this quality 

 of excellence, that it finds no repose except in tbe full and entire knowledge of 

 things. It is this restless seeking for truth, a movement impressed upon tbe 

 mind by a divine impulse, wbicb constitutes its force in labor and its joy in 

 discovery. In tbe new study which we have been considering, a multitude of 

 facts, I mean necessary facts, are still wanting to us. We have explored but a 

 part of tbe surface of the globe. There are places where, in reference to so 

 grave a discussion, nature may well be surprised at not having been interro- 

 gated. There will arise intrepid explorers who will lay open unknown regions. 

 There will arise new thinkers. Tbe noble science of Cuvier and De Blainville — 

 for, from the very opposition of ideas, tbe two names will remain united — has 

 reached that elevated point at which it is able to propound witb precision tbe 

 problem upon which it is divided ; and this problem of tbe successive or simul- 

 taneous order of created beings is surely, in the domain of natural history, one 

 of the grandest which the genius of men has ever conceived. 



Absorbed in contemplations of so high a nature, M. de Blainville became less 

 and less disposed to comply witb those relations of amenity wbicb render life 

 easy. To excuse himself to bis own conscience, be attributed to rigidity of 

 principle what was at best but error of judgment. He was now in possession 

 of tbe substantial privileges of success ; but this did not diminish bis pretensions. 

 He brought them all into this Academy, in spite of the admonition given us by 

 Fontenelle : " Here it was intended that everything should be simple ; that no 

 one should think himself under an obligation to be in tite right; tbat no system 

 should govern, and tbat the door should always remain open for truth." To 

 one who had but too well learned in tbe professor's chair tbe full value of the 

 law of the strongest, this privilege of being in the right appeared intolerable 

 when it no longer applied to himself alone. In replies marked by a tone of 

 peremptory authority, M. de Blainville was apt to forget tbat he had descended 

 from the chair, and tbat here all tbe seats are equal. " Doubtless," as was said 

 by tbe sagacious historian just cited in speaking of one of bis colleagues, "the 

 ■ search for truth demands in tbe Academy liberty of contradiction ; but all society 



* Nothing in the book of M. de Blainville is at the same time more ingenious and 

 true than this remark, namely, that the moxc lacuna a group of mammifers presents, the 

 more vacancies between its living species, so much the greater is the number of fossil species 

 which it counts. The actual pachyderms afford only scattering species, and Ihere are many 

 fossil pachyderms. The monkeys, on the other hand, present numerous and closely crowded 

 species, and there are few fossil monkeys, »Scc. 



