120 EMINENT NATURALISTS. 



was stimulated by reading a copy of Buffon, which 

 he found at the house of a relative ; and his 

 memory was so retentive that, at the age of twelve, 

 he was perfectly familiar with the descriptions of 

 birds and quadrupeds. At the age of fourteen he 

 formed a kind of academy from among his school- 

 mates, of which he was president. He drew up the 

 regulations, and fixed the meetings for every 

 Tuesday at a stated hour, and seated on his bed, 

 and placing his companions round a table, he 

 ordered that some work should be read which 

 treated either of natural history, philosophy, history, 

 or travels. The merits of the book were then 

 discussed, after which the youthful president summed 

 up the whole, and pronounced a sort of judgment 

 on the matter contained in it, which judgment was 

 always strictly adopted by his disciples. 



He was then remarkable for his declamatory 

 powers ; and on the anniversary fete of the sovereign 

 of Montbeliard (Duke Charles of Wurtemburg) he 

 composed an oration in verse on the prosperous 

 state of the principality, and delivered it fresh 

 from his pen, in a firm, manly tone, which astonished 

 the audience. On account of a prejudice on the 

 part of the head of the school, arising from annoy- 

 ance at some sarcasms in which young Cuvier had 

 indulged, this display of talent did not meet with 

 its proper reward ; and instead of being placed in 

 the first rank of the themes presented, it was 

 included in the third rank. This was the more 

 vexatious, as the station of the boy at college 



