

r^5 MEMOIRS 



BARON CUVIER 



INTRODUCTION. 



Before I enter upon the subject of this voiiune, I would 

 explain to my readers the motives which have induced me 

 to write it, in order to prevent that appearance of presump- 

 tion, which may naturally be laid to the charge of an un- 

 learned person, who attempts to write the life of so illustrious 

 a savant. 



When death has torn from us those whom we have most 

 loved and revered, and the overwhelming bitterness of grief 

 is past, the first feeling Avhich awakens us from our sorrow 

 is the desire to uphold the memory, and to make known to 

 all men the virtues of the being enshrined in our hearts ; a 

 feeling which springs, not only from an honest pride in 

 doing justice to one who is no more, but from a desire that 

 posterity should benefit by the example. Rousing myself, 

 then, from the stunning grief which at first assailed me, I 

 eagerly sought all the public notices which appeared in 

 England concerning the Bai"on Cuvier, in the hope of find- 

 ing something equal to his high deserts ; but though all did 

 him the justice of placing him above every other natu- 

 ralist, not one spoke of his talents as a .legislator, and all 

 equally neglected his private character. This, and the 

 almost universal incorrectness of detail, no doubt proceeded 

 from ignorance rather than intention ; yet, disappointed as 

 I was that my countrymen should have so little known and 

 appreciated one of the most admirable persons of our time, 

 nothing, at that moment, could be further from my thoughts 

 than to supply the deficiencies by my own pen. 



