390 BUFFON 



of his former vogue, by reason of the great bulk of his 

 Natural History and the lowered credit both of his 

 facts and his speculations. But, like Reaumur and 

 Cuvier, he still finds readers, and few scientific writers 

 of his age are so well known. His maxim : — " les 

 ouvrages bien Merits seront les seuls qui passeront a 

 la post^rit^ " does not by any means always hold good 

 of scientific works, but even among these " les ouvrages 

 bien ecrits" have one chance more of escaping 

 oblivion. 



1789 AND LATER 



From 1789 we look forward to an age comparatively 

 familiar to the modern naturalist. Cuvier, a Wurtem- 

 bergerof twenty, who had studied in the Caroline Academy 

 at Stuttgard, was in 1789 acquainting himself with the 

 marine zoology of Normandy; in 1795 he was to be 

 summoned to Paris, there to enter upon the palseonto- 

 logical studies which are now reckoned his most valuable 

 contributions to science. Humboldt, born in the same 

 year with Cuvier, was to sail for South America in 1799. 

 Robert Brown, the great founder of nineteenth century 

 botany, was born in 1773 ; Baer in 1792 ; Darwin in 

 1809; Pasteur in 1822. 



The nineteenth century has surpassed all predecessors 

 in the extent and importance of its scientific achieve- 

 ment. Which of the branches of science thus enlarged 

 and renovated has done most for the welfare of mankind 

 is a question on which opinion is divided. Some of us 

 attach the highest importance to those sciences whose 

 industrial applications are most evident ; others think 

 that mathematics is yet more important, because more 

 fundamental. Biologists have something to urge in 



