THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN FRANCE. 



137 



of the end of this century agrees with or differs from that 

 of its beginning. Upholding the Newtonian rather than 

 the Baconian and Leibnizian standard in the mathemati- 

 cal and physical sciences/ he has marked that line which 

 our whole century has contributed to trace out more dis- 

 tinctly; whilst, as regards the purely natural sciences, his 

 continued emphasising of the great problem of organisation, 

 and his later controversy with Geoifroy de Saint-Hilaire, 

 mark that point in which this century has most distinctly 

 departed from the prevailing ideas of its early years.^ 

 He also recognised earlier than any other mind of similar 

 eminence what our century increasingly realises, how, 

 without a system of condensation, contained in reports, 

 statistics, and figures, aided by classifications and systems, 

 the growing bulk of accumulated knowledge becomes 



chaotic and unmanageable.^ 



^ Cuvier was not brought up in 

 the school of the Eucyclopsedists, 

 and I cannot find that he attached 

 the great importance to the writ- 

 ings of Bacon which that school 

 commonly did. As to Newton and 

 Leibniz, he contrasts their methods, 

 considering them "comme les chefs 

 et les reprdsentans des deux 

 methodes oppos^es qui se sont dis- 

 pute I'empire de la science" ('His- 

 toire des Sciences naturelles,' 

 publiee par Magdeleine de Saint- 

 Agy, Paris, 1841, vol. iii. p. 19, 

 &c.) See also in his joint Report 

 with Haiiy and Lelievre on the 

 Science of Geology ('Mem. de I'ln- 

 stitut,' 1807, p. 133): "On vit 

 renaltre dans cette partie de I'his- 

 toire naturelle la methode systema- 

 tique de Descartes, que Newton 

 semblait avoir bannie pour jamais 

 de toutes les sciences physiques, 

 . . . et lorsqu'on songe que Leib- 

 niz et Buflon sont au nombre 



des philosophes dont je parle ici," 

 &c. 



^ A future chapter will deal speci- 

 ally with this subject. Cuvier, as 

 is well known, maintained the fixity 

 of species, and opposed the theories 

 of St Hilaire and Lamarck, in which 

 a later generation recognises the 

 beginnings of the Darwinian doc- 

 trine of the transmutation of species. 

 "On est oblige d'admettre certaines 

 formes, qui se sont perpetuees 

 depuis I'origine des choses, sans 

 exceder ces limites ; et tous les 

 etres appartenans h. I'une de ces 

 formes constituent ce que I'on 

 appelle une espece " (' Regne ani- 

 mal,' vol. i. p. 20). 



* Cuvier was the first great scien- 

 tific writer who undertook to give 

 a historical survey of the position 

 of the different natural sciences, 

 with a view of ascertaining what 

 had been achieved and what re- 

 mained to be done. He did what 



