18 ON THE METHOD OF ZADIG j 



in their generation ; they foresaw rightly that 

 this pestilent application of the principles of 

 common sense, inaugurated by Zadig, would 

 be their ruin. 



But it may be said that the method of Zadig, 

 which is simple reasoning from analogy, does not 

 account for the most striking feats of modern 

 paleontology the reconstruction of entire animals 

 from a tooth or perhaps a fragment of a bone ; and 

 it may be justly urged that Cuvier, the great- 

 master of this kind of investigation, gave 'a very 

 different account of the process which yielded 

 such remarkable results. 



Cuvier is not the first man of ability who has 

 failed to make his own mental processes clear to 

 himself, and he will not be the last. The matter 

 can be easily tested. Search the eight volumes of 

 the " Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles " from 

 cover to cover, and nothing but the application of 

 the method of Zadig will be found in the argu- 

 ments by which a fragment of a skeleton is made 

 to reveal the characters of the animal to which it 

 belonged. 



There is one well-known case which may repre- 

 sent all. It is an excellent illustration of Cuvier's 

 sagacity, and he evidently takes some pride in 

 telling his story about it. A split slab of stone 

 arrived from the quarries of Montmartre, the two 

 halves of which contained the greater part of the 

 skeleton of a small animal. On careful examina- 



