CUVIER. 179 



commandant of the artillery of the town. He was 

 made Chevalier de I'Ordre Merite Militaire, which, 

 among Protestants, was equal to the Catholic order 

 of the Croix de St. Louis. The old soldier 

 married, late in life, a young and highly accom- 

 plished lady, by whom he had three sons. The 

 eldest died a short time before the birth of the 

 second, who is the subject of this biography, and 

 who was extremely delicate. The mother, sad at 

 the death of her firstborn, took the curious fancy 

 of calling her little weak second child by the name 

 of George, which was that of her firstborn also. 

 Cuvier was not baptized with that name, although 

 he ever used it in deference to his mother ; but in 

 after years, when legal difficulties presented them- 

 selves, he took the necessary measures to have a 

 right to use the name. Feeble in constitution, the 

 child required all the attention of his mother, and 

 he never forgot her loving care. She taught him 

 carefully and well during his early years, and the 

 child grew strong and able. He could read 

 fluently at the age of four years, and when the 

 time came for him to be placed at school, the 

 mother went over his exercises at night, and by 

 her good knowledge of Latin enabled him to be 

 better prepared than any other boy in the school, 

 for his daily tasks. She taught him drawing, and 

 this necessary art was subsequently taught Cuvier 

 by an architect in the town. At the age of ten 

 years he was placed at a school of a higher 

 description of teaching, called the Gymnasc, where 



