40 MEMOIR OF CUVIEK. 



when all around seems running on only for him. 

 The Baron Cuvier, with his country at peace, and its 

 princes and nobles all anxious for the progress of 

 science and the welfare and instruction of the peo- 

 ple, was placed as the leader of these great depart- 

 ments, enjoying the confidence of his sovereign, and 

 conscious, from his own integrity, that he deserved it. 

 He was zealously following his favourite departments 

 in science, surrounded with all which every quarter 

 of the world could produce, and seeing the informa- 

 tion which voyages of discovery brought from every 

 country. His saloons were crowded with the learned 

 of Europe, who came to receive his knowledge, and 

 leave the information they had gathered in return. 

 He was happy in that part of his family which had 

 been spared to him ; and lightness of heart, and con- 

 scious right, were the companions of his deepest 

 studies. But in one part of his enjoyments he had 

 yet to receive a bitter blow, which marked his fu- 

 ture years ; it chastened, as it were, the happiness 

 which had every where accompanied him, and threw 

 a deeper calm over his remaining life. He had 

 suffered severely by bereavements of his family. 

 Madame Cuvier brought him four children : two of 

 these died in early youth ; the third, a boy of pro- 

 mise, was taken from him about the age of thirteen, 

 during his journey to Rome, and when the son could 

 almost begin to enter into the pursuits of his father ; 

 the fourth, M. Clementine Cuvier, rich in attain- 



