112 Mary Someruille. 



found several people had come to spend the 

 evening, and the conversation was carried on with 

 a good deal of spirit ; the Countess Albrizzi, 

 a Venetian lady, of high acquirements, joined in 

 it with considerable talent and animation. Cuvier 

 had a very remarkable countenance, not hand- 

 some, but agreeable, and his manner was pleasing 

 and modest, and his conversation very interest- 

 ing. Madame de Stael having died lately, was 

 much discussed. She was much praised for her 

 good-nature, and for the brilliancy of her conversa- 

 tion. They agreed, that the energy of her character, 

 not old age, had worn her out. Cuvier said, the 

 force of her imagination misled her judgment, and 

 made her see things in a light different from all 

 the world. As a proof of this, he mentioned 

 that she makes Corinne lean on a marble lion 

 which is on a tomb in St. Peter's, at Rome, 

 more than twenty feet high. Education was 

 very much discussed. Cuvier said, that when he 

 was sent to inspect the schools at Bordeaux and 

 Marseilles, he found very few of the scholars who 

 could perform a simple calculation in arithmetic ; 

 as to science, history, or literature, they were un- 

 known, and the names of the most celebrated 

 French philosophers, famed in other countries, were 

 utterly unknown to those who lived in the pro- 



