BARON CUVIER. 85 



science to which he was devoted. Pliny has frequently 

 been magnified into a great author concerning natural his- 

 tory, and his writings appealed to as a most indisputable 

 source of information. It seems, however, that he was 

 but a skilful compiler ; he copied what others had said be- 

 fore ; he asserted many things from common report, and 

 could by no means be relied on with that security which 

 is due to the naturalist who describes from personal obser- 

 vation. Thus, although there is much in him to beheve 

 and to admire, considerable caution is requisite in the study 

 of his pages ; and it is a most important service rendered 

 to the inexperienced, to have identified the animals of Pli- 

 ny, to have shown how much is Avorthy of confidence, and 

 what should be rejected. 



I am now about to notice a work of a very different cha- 

 racter from any which have hitherto been presented : it is 

 a very small duodecimo volume of eighty-nine pages, but 

 it is a gem which owes nothing of its lustre to its size, and 

 sparkles, amid other brilliants, from the exquisite feeling 

 which breathes in every line. It does not delight us by 

 the charms of its eloquence, so much as by placing M. 

 Cuvier before us as a moralist who derives his precepts 

 from that pure light which shines on all who seek it. The 

 subject is the distribution of the prizes founded by M. de 

 Montyon for virtuous actions. This philanthropist had 

 spent a fife of usefulness, and particularly sought to me- 

 liorate the condition of the lower classes, "that class of 

 beings, which," to use M. Cuvier's expressions, " he saw 

 exposed to poverty and disease ; forced to undergo severe 

 and painful, even dangerous and unhealthy labours ; al- 

 most entirely deprived of education ; particularly open to 

 the seductions of vice, the torrent of passions, and brutal 

 pleasures ; often obliged to listen to the suggestions of 

 want and hunger, and having no resource against these 

 temptations in mental acquirement, in the habit of reflec- 

 tion, in public esteem, in the hope of a better fate, or that 

 ease of circumstances, which in otiier conditions is acquir- 

 ed by labour and good conduct." 



M. de Montyon left legacies to hospitals ; and thinking, 

 that after quitting these asylums in too w^ak a state to 

 work, the poor needed still further aid, he destined a cer- 



H 



