BARON CUVIER. 45 



lowed to pronounce on the merits of his own productions. 

 These prizes soon became a universal theme ; an exhibi- 

 tion of the pictures painted for them took place in the 

 Louvre, and every body was more or less interested. The 

 juries sat, the judges pronounced sentence ; and because the 

 Comparative Anatomy proceeded from one of the latter, 

 though it received the praise due to it. the prize for this 

 subject was awarded to another work. Delay took place, 

 and the Emperor deemed a revision of the judgment ne- 

 cessary. During this revision M. Cuvier was in Italy, and 

 advantage' was taken of his absence to change the sentence, 

 and recommend the prize to be bestowed on him. The 

 greatest freedom was given to discussion, in the idea that 

 all would be strictly confidential on the part of the govern- 

 ment; when, to the astonishment of every one, the 

 whole of the reports given to the Minister of the Interior 

 was published in the Moniteur. Could any thing be bet- 

 ter calculated to accomplish the desires of his Imperial Ma- 

 jesty ? No sooner did the affair languish, and people cease 

 to talk of it, from the conviction that all was done, than he 

 set the whole capital in a turmoil of bickering and dispute ; 

 for every one has his own cause, or that of his protege to 

 defend. The result proved it to be one of those master- 

 strokes of policy of which Napoleon was so capable: and what 

 was his intention throughout is very evident; for the prizes 

 were never even mentioned afterwards. The reports, however, 

 have been collected, and form a very curious quarto volume. 

 From the writings on Comparative Anatomy, I naturally 

 turn to that vast collection of the subjects themselves, form- 

 ed by M. Cuvier at the Jardin des Plantes : and when I re- 

 peat, that this collection was not only the principal source 

 from which he drew the materials for the great work just 

 mentioned, but was the basis for most others, it is scarcely 

 necessary for me to enter into many details concerning it : 

 to its leading features I shall therefore confine myself. It 

 is contained in fifteen rooms of various sizes ; and in these 

 fifteen rooms we may verify almost every fact stated by M. 

 Cuvier, by actual inspection : and we are lost in admiration, 

 not only at the vast operations of nature, but at the mind 

 which appreciated them, and made them known to his fel- 

 low-men. The collection should be viewed by beginning 



