MEMOIR OF DA-UBENTON, 211 



His success has since "been surpassed. The entire 

 ftocks^ brought by Government from Spain at the re- 

 quest of M. Tessier, as well as those brought by M. 

 Gilbert, have spread a fine race over the country, with 

 much greater rapidity than Daubenton could <}o by 

 means of his rams alone; but -he, nevertheless, led the 

 way, and did 1 all -that- was possible with th& means he 

 possessed; 



He acquired, by these means j a Mad of popular re- 

 putation, which was very useful to him i& a dangerous 

 crisis. In 1793, an epoch fortunately already remote 

 from us, when, by an overturn of ideas which will be 

 long memorable in history, the most ignorant portion 

 of the people had to pronounce -on the fate _f the most 

 intelligent and nobly born, Daubenton, now an octo- 

 genarian, in order to retain the situation he had honour- 

 ed by his talents and virtues for fifty-two years, required 

 to^ask ft&m an' assembly, which assumed the name of 

 the section Sans-culottes, a paper of which the extra- 

 ordinary name was Certijtcat $e Civisme. A professor 

 or academician would have obtained it with difficulty. 

 Some sensible people, mixed with the infuriated rabble 

 in the hope of restraining their excesses, presented him 

 under the title of Shepherd'; and it was the Shepherd 

 Daubenton who obtained the certificate necessary for 

 the Director of the Museum of Natural History. This 

 paper still exists. It is a document, calculated to throw 

 light not only on the life of Daubenton, but on the 

 history of this dismal period. 



