MEMOIR. Xlll 



Animal" appeared; and as the first and second Prefaces of tlie author, 

 wliich will be found in the present volume, abundantly explain the nature 

 and objects of that great performance, and the circumstances under which 

 it was undertaken, we do not feel ourselves at liberty to dwell upon the 

 subject. In reference, however, to the important question of classifica- 

 tion, it is of some consequence that we should render complete justice to 

 the original labours of Cuvier. 



Those who are familiar with the works of the antient philosopher, 

 Aristotle, will be astonished to find that, in an age so remote as that in 

 wliich he flourished, the true principles on which the classification of animals 

 should be effected were perfectly well understood. Mankind, at least, seem 

 to have been contented with them, inasmuch as no attempt, from the days 

 of that Father of Naturalists to the age of Linnasus, was ever made to 

 alter the system of the former. The attempt made by Linnaeus to im- 

 prove upon Aristotle, is held by Lamarck to have been successful in these 

 respects, that the Swede uses the term mammalia, which is sufficiently 

 distinctive — that he has put the Whales into that class — that he forms 

 the Reptiles into a separate class, placing them between the Birds and 

 the Fishes. If we can suppose these changes to be incorporated with 

 the system of Aristotle, there will be very little difference between that 

 system and the one universally adopted in modern times. It follows, 

 therefore, that the improvement in the right distribution of animals 

 effected by Linnsus, is comparatively trifling, and, in our view, much in- 

 ferior in the depth and importance of its principles to that which was 

 discovered and established by the subject of this biography, 



"VVliilst Aristotle exhibited wonderful judgment in his arrangements, 

 still he had no true -notion of the laws which regulate species; he was 

 confounded altogether by the limits of the variation of species, and here 

 it is that the second Aristotle has been able triumphantly to succeed. 

 Cuvier studied ardently and incessantly the nature of the conditions that 

 allow of the developement of individuals or species in the form in which 

 they appear, and the results of his original and wonderful labours have 

 cast a light over the mysteries of living nature, such as discloses them in 

 a condition in which they are most calculated for our comprehension. 

 Ciivier, in traversing the relics of the antient world, and comparing them 

 with the structures which compose the breathing beings of this, disco- 

 vered the talisman which opened every locked treasure to his hand, in 

 the simple law that every part of any animal, and in some, the very smallest 

 portion, constitutes a certain index of the character in all respects of the 

 rest. The successful [application of this law is one of the greatest 

 triumphs of the genius of Cuvier. 



The Bourbons increased in their attachment to the illustrious natur- 



