cuvier. L25 



On the return of Napoleon from Egypt in 1800, 

 when he was made First Consul, and was ambitious 

 of every variety of fame, he placed himself at the 

 head of the Institute, and had thus occasion to 

 witness the talents and sagacity of Cuvier. He was 

 hence induced in 1802 to appoint him one of the 

 six inspectors-general for establishing Lyceums in 

 thirty towns of France ; and it fell to the lot of 

 Cuvier to found those of Marseilles, Nice, and 

 Bordeaux, which are at present royal colleges. 

 During his absence from Paris, the Institute was 

 remodelled, and he was elected one of the perpetual 

 secretaries, viz., that for the natural sciences, at an 

 annual salary of £240. 



On the death of his father, and also of his brother's 

 wife, who had managed the domestic affairs of the 

 family, he married, in 1803, the widow of M. 

 Duvaucel, one of the farmers-general who had 

 perished on the scaffold in 1794. "Without fortune, 

 and with the burden, or as Cuvier found it, the 

 blessing, of four children by her first husband, this 

 lady contributed largely to his happiness. SI if 

 brought him other four children, all of whom he was 

 fated to survive ; but these afflictions were the 

 darkest, if not the only clouds which interrupted the 

 sunshine of his felicity. The balance of good and 

 evil with which his lot was cast was thus bitterly 

 destroyed; but Providence heaped wealth and 

 honours into the uplifted scale and weighed it down 

 with the consciousness that they were the reward- oi 

 virtue and of knowledge. 



