18 MEMOIR OF CUVIER. 



of man, or which could be brought to assist in the 

 prosperity of their advocates, advanced much more 

 rapidly, and we have examples of splendid disco- 

 very in Medicine. Chemistry, and Astronomy. But 

 in Natural History, though many illustrious names 

 could be mentioned from the times of Aristotle 

 to those of Linnaeus and Buffon, forty years have 

 scarcely elapsed, since the living works of creation 

 were studied with a view to the relation between 

 their internal and external organs, and the facts which 

 had been so long in collecting were reduced to any 

 arrangement. Linnaeus and Buffon, whose works 

 we have endeavoured to review rapidly in our for- 

 mer volumes, were contemporary, and each in his 

 own way assisted more than any of their predeces- 

 sors to give an additional zeal and zest, and practical 

 utility, to Natural History. 



The individual to whom we shall devote our pre- 

 sent sketch, thus well compares these his forerunners 

 in research : " Linnaeus and Buffon seem to have 

 possessed, each in his own way, those qualities which 

 it was impossible for the same man to combine, and 

 all of which were necessaiy to give a rapid impulse to 

 the study of nature. Both passionately fond of this 

 science, both thirsting for fame, both indefatigable in 

 \*heir studies, both gifted with sensibility, lively imagi- 

 nations, and elevated minds, they each started in their 

 career armed with those resources which result from 

 profound erudition. But each of them traced a dif- 

 ferent path for himself, according to the peculiar 



