24 MEMOIR OF CUVJEK. 



';ured by the interest of his benefactor. The events 

 of the times prevented the immediate accomplish- 

 ment of this object, and his pecuniary circumstances 

 would not permit him to follow the employment of 

 o naturalist, which, as yet, could yield him no emolu- 

 ment. Contrary to the opinions and advices of his 

 companions, he determined to seek the situation of 

 a tutor ; they thought that the high abilities which 

 he had already shewn would be degraded, and his 

 information thrown away ; but M. Cuvier entertained 

 a different opinion regarding the responsibility of an 

 instructor of youth, and preferred a secluded but ho- 

 nourable independency a step which he ever after- 

 wards looked back upon with pleasure, as the means 

 and commencement of an intercourse with those 

 men, to whom he was indebted for the first rise ill 

 his afterwards brilliant career. 



In 1788, at the age of nineteen, he received an 

 introduction to a protestant family, residing near 

 Caen in Normandy, that of the Count d'Hericy, and 

 was entrusted with the guidance of the Count's only 

 son. Here he saw all the nobility of the surround- 

 ing country, acquired the form and manners of the 

 best society, and became acquainted with some of 

 the most remarkable men of his time. Nor was the 

 maritime situation of the place without its advan- 

 tages : he had facilities of examining the productions 

 of the sea, particularly the Mollusca, which gave 

 him new ideas, and led to the research and develop- 



