CUVIER. 197 



stately, for he was with his peers there, and perhaps 

 he might have occasionally felt it necessary to 

 retain an appearance of reserve during the some- 

 times not very scientific discussions of that mixed 

 assemblage. 



Cuvier, notwithstanding his great patience when 

 he was at work, and his singular placidity when on 

 the face of a difficult point in natural history or 

 anatomy, was what is called a "Turk" at home, 

 and with others. Accustomed to most minute 

 exactitude, and to regulate his hands by his rapidly 

 working brain, he was singularly impatient with 

 other people who ^had to serve under him. He 

 used to hasten his workmen, so that his orders 

 were often performed with difficulty. He was hard 

 to bear with, and any waste of time the result of 

 carelessness, put him in a rage. Anything wrong 

 at table in his house, to be kept waiting, or some 

 trifling disobedience, would rouse an absurd amount 

 of anger. His irritability was excessive, and he 

 frequently forgot himself in his scoldings, and had 

 to make reparation afterwards. But he was always 

 ready to testify that he had been wrong, and to do 

 his best to make amends; nevertheless, he did not 

 improve in this particular, and he never had great 

 control over his feelings. No labour, however 

 minute and prolonged, irritated him when he be- 

 lieved that it was requisite for the attainment of 

 an object ; still he could not listen to a few pages 

 of a book which taught nothing, without expressing 

 himself very decidedly. From what has been 



