138 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



Cuvier had also a true historical sense, which enabled 



him to trace the connection of science with political 



history, with literature, with the fine and useful arts. 



si. And he helps to answer a question which to us is of 



On the 



fortunes of paramount interest, How did science fare during the 



science dur- 



o rea ^ cataclysm of the Eevolution ? how under the reac- 

 tionary despotism of the First Empire ? Before attempt- 

 ing to reply to these questions in the light of subse- 

 quent and general European history, I will select a few 

 passages from Cuvier which throw light upon these 

 points : l 



" There is always a revolution required in order to 

 change habits which have become general, and the most 

 necessary revolutions do not take place without some 

 circumstance, which is sometimes long delayed. We 

 have been able to see how in such a case everything 

 furthers the sciences, even the delays and contrarieties 

 which they seem to suffer under. 



" The events which disturbed the world, and which for 

 natural science temporarily dried up the sources of its 

 riches, 2 obliged it to return to itself, and to make a new 

 study of what it possessed, more fruitful than the most 



a generation later the British Asso- 

 ciation undertook to do, and what 

 in Germany the many " Jahres- 

 berichte" do nowadays. See his 

 " Analyse des Travaux," &c., ' Me"m. 

 de 1'Institut,' vol. is. p. 53, and his 

 celehrated ' Rapport historique sur 

 le Progres des Sciences naturelles 

 depuis 1789,' Paris, 1810. 



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

 456, 1824. 



2 This refers to the isolation of 

 France during the war and the Con- 

 tinental blockade, which deprived 



it of foreign imports and the scien- 

 tific collections of foreign specimens ; 

 see also 'Eloges,' vol. i. p. 9 ; vol. iii. 

 p. 202: "Quand la jalousie des 

 peuples nous privait des produits 

 etrangers, la chimie les faisait e"clore 

 de notre sol." "Le conseil des 

 mines etabli en 1793, lorsque 1'in- 

 terruption de tout rapport avec 

 1'etranger fit sentir le besoin de 

 tirer parti de notre territoire a 

 donne" a ces sortes de recherches 

 une impulsion toute nouvelle" 

 ('Rapport,' p. 178). 



