AUGUSTIN-PYRAMUS DE CANDOLLE. 297 



mine. No cloud ever threw a shadow over our alliance, which be- 

 came closer yet when, at a later period, the friendly connection of 

 my wife with the widowed Madame Say determined the latter to 

 marry Dumeril. He was chief demonstrator in the anatomical de- 

 partment at the School of Medicine, but he became professor and 

 member of the Academy of Sciences. Dumeril was remarkable 

 rather for the clearness of his ideas, and the variety and accuracy of 

 his knowledge in natural history, than for theoretical principles. He 

 was a practical man, whose elementary works had considerable suc- 

 cess, but who, after having had a glimpse of some of the laws of or- 

 ganic symmetry, such as the analogy of the skull to vertebrae, seemed 

 to have collapsed before their immensity. His principal services to 

 science were in the way of teaching, and in the encouragement which 

 he so well knew how to give to the young. The heart in this kind 

 of influence is more essential than the head, and although DumeriTs 

 judgment was clear and quick, he was much more remarkable for his 

 moral qualities. 



" Cuvier, who was from the beginning the intimate friend of Du- 

 meril, was entirely different ; and it would be difficult to find two 

 people who were less analogous. Born at Montbeliard and brought 

 up at Stuttgart, Cuvier had something of the gravity and even of the 

 obstinacy of the German. Placed for some time in an inferior posi- 

 tion, he was forced from his youth to make up for it by the dignity 

 of his manner; but the world of savans, at least, will never forget 

 his sojourn in Normandy, where he made those beautiful investiga- 

 tions on the molluscs which were the beginning of his fame. Called 

 afterwards to the Jardin des Plantes as assistant to the aged Mer- 

 trud, he owed this position to the friendship of Geoffroy ; but he 

 soon surpassed his patron. In consequence of this position he was a 

 member of the Institute from its foundation, and quickly acquired 

 the reputation which results from great talent united to a skillful 

 ambition. At the time when the office of secretary was annual he 

 foresaw it would become perpetual, and arranged in such a manner 

 as to fill one secretaryship almost continually, either himself or by 

 others ; so that he found himself in position to have it without con- 

 test when it became permanent and well paid. These first steps 

 being taken, all places fell to him as of themselves, and we saw him 

 successively Professor of the Ecoles Centrales, of the College de 

 France, at the Jardin des Plantes, Inspector, then Councillor, then 

 Chancellor of the University, Councillor of State, Baron, Peer of 

 France, etc., etc. His talent, his aptitude for knowing and doing 



