BARON CUVIER. 77 



he has not neglected a single thing which belongs to the 

 existence of the being which he describes. Others have 

 only admired the general views and lofty style of Buffon, 

 without remarking that he only decorated a series of facts, 

 collected with the most judicious criticism, with these bril- 

 liant ornaments ; and even that nomenclature, which they 

 affect to despise, is always established by him with great 

 erudition, after the most careful and ingenious discussion." 

 I close this extract with a remark made upon M. Cuvier 

 by M. Duvernoy, who has also cited the above passage in 

 an eloge on his illustrious master, addressed to his disciples 

 at Strasburgh. " May we not say, after this, that he who 

 so well appreciated these great men, who so happily found 

 in the one, that which was wanting in the other, knew 

 how to unite the excellencies of both in his own writings ; 

 or rather, that his genius, in its originality, had nothing 

 incomplete, nothing which could make us feel the want of 

 the true method on one side, nor the absence of general 

 views on the other." 



A list of the articles contributed by M. Cuvier to the 

 above mentioned Dictionnaire will be found among the 

 catalogue of his works at the end of this volume ; but that 

 headed " Nature " is too important to be passed over in 

 silence here ; to remain unnoticed in memoirs especially 

 intended to set forth his opinions ; for it contains the clear- 

 est and most satisfactory refutation of the reigning contro- 

 versies that has ever been published in a separate form ; 

 though what these opinions were, may be gathered from 

 every thing he has written. 



" The word Nature, like all abstract terms which find 

 their way into common language, has assumed numerous 

 and divers significations. Primitively, and according to its 

 etymology, it means that which a being derives from its 

 birth, in opposition to that which it may derive from 

 art. ... It is in the nature of an oak to grow for three 

 centuries, to have hard wood, to attain a great size, &c. It 

 is in that of a bird to raise itself in the air, to distinguish 

 distant objects, &c. Man is by nature capable of educa- 

 tion ; his nature is weak, inconstant, &c. Each individual 

 may possess, physically or morally, its own peculiar nature ; 

 it may be feeble or vigorous, mild or passionate, &c. 



G* 



