132 SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



beings and their parts which are to be known are to be 

 counted by the million ; it is not enough to know them 

 singly, for they are submitted to an order, to mutual 

 relations, which must likewise be appreciated, for it is 

 according to this order that each has its part to play, 

 that each disappears at its time, that they reappear simi- 

 larly made, always in the same proportions, and armed 

 with the necessary forces and faculties for the main- 

 tenance of these proportions, and of the whole of this 

 perpetual vortex. Not only is each being an organism, 

 the whole universe is one, but many million times more 

 complicated ; and that which the anatomist does for 

 a single animal for the microcosm the naturalist is 

 to do for the macrocosm, for the universal animal, 

 for the play of this alarming aggregation of partial 

 organisms." l 



It was this sustained regard for the value of detailed 

 research and minute observation, coupled with an equal 

 appreciation of the unity of all regions of existence, 

 and all branches of learning, that elevated Cuvier to 

 the height of the science of his age and his country, 

 and made him a true exponent of the modern scientific 

 spirit. The works of Newton and Laplace may contain 

 more formulae of lasting value, more instruments of per- 

 manent scientific use they may, for all time, have traced 

 a few lines of the enwoven cipher of the all-pervading 

 mechanism of nature ; it is, however, well to note that he 

 only who keeps in steadfast view the life rather than the 

 mechanism of existence, approaches the great secret of 

 nature, and gauges rightly the value of each component 



1 Cuvier, ' Eloges historiques, ' vol. iii. p. 453. 



