BARON CUVIER. 9 



was brought to light by the sight of a Gesner, with coloured 

 plates, in the library of the Gymnase, and by the frequent 

 visits which he paid at the house of a relation who possess- 

 ed a complete copy of Buflfon. Blessed with a memory that 

 retained every thing he saw and read, and which never 

 failed him in any part of his career, when twelve years old 

 he was as familiar with quadrupeds and birds as a first-rate 

 naturalist. He copied the plates of the above work, and 

 coloured them according to the printed descriptions, either 

 with paint or pieces of silk. He was never without a 

 volume of this author in his pocket, which was read again 

 and again ; and frequently he was roused from its pages to 

 take his place in the class repeating Cicero and Virgil. The 

 admiration which he felt at this youthful period for his great 

 predecessor never ceased, and in public, as well as private 

 circles, he never failed to express it. The charms of Buf- 

 fon's style, a beauty to which M. Cuvier was very sensible, 

 had always afforded him the highest pleasure, and he felt a 

 sort of gratitude to him, not only for the great zeal he had 

 evinced in the cause of natural history, not only for the en- 

 joyment afforded to his youthful leisure, but for the many 

 proselytes who had been attracted by the magic of his lan- 

 guage. When the student had ripened into the great mas- 

 ter, M. Cuvier found me deeply absorbed by a passage of 

 Buffon ; and he then told me what his own feelings had 

 been on first reading him, and that this impression had 

 never been destroyed in maturer years. He had been 

 obliged for the sake of science, to point out the errors com- 

 mitted by this eloquent naturalist, but he had never lost an 

 opportunity of remarking and dwelling on his perfections. 



At the age of fourteen we find the dawning talents of the 

 legislator manifesting themselves ; and the young Cuvier 

 then chose a certain number of his schoolfellows, and con- 

 stituted them into an academy, of which he was appointed 

 president. He gave the regulations, and fixed the meetings 

 for every Thursday, at a stated hour, and, seated on his 

 bed, and placing his companions round a table, he ordered 

 that some work should be read, which treated either of 

 natural history, philosophy, history, or travels. The merits 

 of the book were then discussed, after which, the youthful 

 president summed up the whole, and pronounced a sort of 



