CUVIER. 199 



drawing-room Cuvler sometimes gratified his friends 

 by an hour's stay amongst them before he retired 

 to his occupation or his visits, but so untiring was 

 his industry, that he often set the whole party to 

 work aiding him in his researches. If he had any 

 foreign works he would often amuse his friends by 

 verifying the figures in them, one after the other. 

 It must be said that this everlasting work was 

 trying to people who were with Cuvier, for no 

 sooner did friends come to stay with him than he 

 began to use them in tracing drawings on paper. 

 He kept them at work, for when he returned from 

 his labours he generally asked for the tasks he had 

 thus set. Nevertheless, many found it a real 

 pleasure to work for him, for he was very grateful 

 for such assistance. Cuvier's hours of relaxation 

 were few. Change of employment afforded him 

 relief, and conversation still greater. At the close 

 of the day's labour, when he found it impossible to 

 work any longer, he was accustomed to throw him- 

 self on a sofa, hide his eyes from the light, and 

 listen to the reading of his wife or daughter, and 

 sometimes of his secretary, M. Laurillard. These 

 nightly readings lasted two hours, and thus Cuvier 

 became more or less acquainted with the current 

 literature and good works of the day. Very likely 

 he did not listen, and went to sleep, but that is not 

 stated of him by those who wrote his domestic 

 habits. 



Cuvier was so downright that he did not like 

 any one who indulged in satire, or who ridiculed the 



