Xn MEMOIR, 



Cuvier's devotion to science, all these governments sought to avail 

 themselves successively of his assistance; and being thus compelled to 

 enter upon the field of politics, no man could pass through the temptations 

 and seductions with which that field abounds more free from taint than 

 Cuvier. When called upon by authority to act the part of a political 

 minister, he obeyed the command with the fidelity and promptitude which 

 a sense of duty in all conscientious subjects would compel them to adopt. 

 But here the political tendencies of Cuvier stopped: when summon- 

 ed to appear in the arena of the Court, he neither looked to the left 

 liand nor to the right, to select the intriguing group, with whom he 

 should hire himself, or put up his influence and patronage to the highest 

 bidder. He stood indifferent amid the agitations of parties around him, 

 and saw without uneasiness that the contempt with which he looked upon 

 their designs and their exertions had rendered him an object of hostility 

 to them. Having been entrusted with the duty of superintendant to the 

 educational and religious establishments connected with the Protestant 

 community of France, Cuvier appears to have executed his functions in 

 such a manner as that, whilst he satisfied the wishes of those whom he 

 was appointed to serve, he, at the same time, made his arrangements 

 agreeable to all. His good sense, his benevolent mind, his religious im- 

 pressions, so guided and animated his whole conduct, that the very sources 

 of animosity in most countries, religious distinctions, were converted, 

 through his skilful exertions, into motives of charity. 



The first visit made by Cuvier to England was in the year 1818, 

 and his sojourn there lasted six weeks. He saw the memorable West- 

 minster election, which was contested by Sir Murray Maxwell; he was 

 kindly received by the Prince Regent; he went down to Oxford, and the 

 whole of the scientific lions of London were pointed out to him by Dr. 

 Leach, who took great pleasure in acting the part of his cicerone ; he 

 went to Windsor — called at Herschel's and saw the great telescope, and 

 paid a visit to Spring Grove, where he was treated with due worship by 

 Sir Joseph Banks. Cuvier ever after spoke with emotion of the recep- 

 tion which he had obtained in England. 



It was not without good reason that the scientific circles of Great 

 Britain were emulous in paying respect to the eminent naturalist. His 

 work on Fossil Bones, and particularly the preliminary discourse on the 

 revolutions on the surface of the globe, together with his volumes on 

 " Comparative Anatomy," but above all, his " Animal Kingdom," had 

 already established his reputation in England, and the full amount of the 

 merit which these various productions represented was unhesitatingly ac- 

 corded to him by the general voice of the learned in this country. The 

 year before his excursion to England was that in which the " Regne 



