THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT . IN FRANCE. 



137 



of the end of this century agrees with or differs from that 

 of its beginning. Upholding the Newtonian rather than 

 the Baconian and Leibnizian standard in the mathemati- 

 cal and physical sciences, 1 he has marked that line which 

 our whole century has contributed to trace out more dis- 

 tinctly ; whilst, as regards the purely natural sciences, his 

 continued emphasising of the great problem of organisation, 

 and his later controversy with Geoffrey de Saint-Hilaire, 

 mark that point in which this century has most distinctly 

 departed from the prevailing ideas of its early years. 2 

 He also recognised earlier than any other mind of similar 

 eminence what our century increasingly realises, how, 

 without a system of condensation, contained in reports, 

 statistics, and figures, aided by classifications and systems, 

 the growing bulk of accumulated knowledge becomes 



chaotic and unmanageable. 3 



1 Cuvier was not brought up in 

 the school of the Encyclopaedists, 

 and I cannot find that he attached 

 the great importance to the writ- 

 ings of Bacon which that school 

 commonly did. As to Newton and 

 Leibniz, he contrasts their methods, 

 considering them " comme les chefs 

 et les repre"sentans des deux 

 methodes opposees qui se sont dis- 

 pute" I'empire de la science " (' His- 

 toire des Sciences naturelles,' 

 publie"e par Magdeleine de Saint- 

 Agy, Paris, 1841, vol. iii. p. 19, 

 &c.) See also in his joint Report 

 with Haiiy and Lelievre on the 

 Science of Geology ('Me'm. de 1'In- 

 stitut,' 1807, p. 133): "On vit 

 renaitre dans cette partie de 1'his- 

 toire naturelle la me'thode syste'ma- 

 tique de Descartes, que Newton 

 semblait avoir bannie pour jamais 

 de toutes les sciences physiques, 

 . . . et lorsqu'on songe que Leib- 

 niz et Buffon sont au nombre 



des philosophes dont je parle ici," 

 &c. 



2 A future chapter will deal speci- 

 ally with this subject. Cuvier, as 

 is well known, maintained the fixity 

 of species, and opposed the theories 

 of St Hilaire and Lamarck, in which 

 a later generation recognises the 

 beginnings of the Darwinian doc- 

 trine of the transmutation of species. 

 " On est oblige" d'admettre certaines 

 formes, qui se sont perpe'tue'es 

 depuis 1'origine des choscs, sans 

 exceder ces limites ; et tous les 

 etres appartenans h 1'une de ces 

 formes constituent ce que 1'on 

 appelle une espece" ('Regne ani- 

 mal,' vol. i. p. 20). 



3 Cuvier was the first great scien- 

 tific writer who undertook to give 

 a historical survey of the position 

 of the different natural sciences, 

 with a view of ascertaining what 

 had been achieved and what re- 

 mained to be done. He did what 



