BARON CUVIER. 9 



conceived a vast plan, and, supported by Buffon, profited by 

 the means his credit afibrded. No production of nature was 

 excluded from this temple, and a number of anatomical pre- 

 parations were collected, which, though less agreeable to the 

 eye, were not less useful to the person who did not limit his 

 researches to the exterior of created beings; who endeavour- 

 ed to make a philosophical science of natural history, and 

 to force it to explain its own phenomena. The study and 

 arrangement of these objects became a real passion for Dau- 

 benton; he shut himself up for whole days in the Museum ; 

 he arranged the objects in a thousand different ways ; he 

 scrupulously examined all their parts ; and he tried every 

 possible arrangement until he found that which neither 

 offended the eye nor natural affinities. Thus it is principally 

 to Daubenton that France owes the magnificent museum 

 of the Jardin des Plantes, where we must be struck with the 

 unwearied patience of the man who amassed all these trea- 

 sures, named them, classed them, displayed their affinities, 

 described their parts, and explained their properties.* A 

 monument equally glorious to the memory of Daubenton is 

 the complete description of this museum; though circum- 

 stances prevented him from, carrying it farther than the 

 quadrupeds. Reaumur, who had till then swayed the 

 sceptre of natural history, and whose " Memoirson Insects" 

 are clear, elegant, and highly interesting, jealous of the in- 

 creasing fame of the two great naturalists, not only attacked 

 Buffon but his friend, whom he considered as the solid sup- 

 porter of his brilliant rival. Quarrels even took place in the 

 Academy, and M. de Buffon was obliged to tax the good 

 offices of Madame de Pompadour, in order to preserve Dauben- 

 ton in the rank which was due to his labours. At length the 

 insinuations of their enemies seemed to take effect, and even 



* It is impossible to read these pages without being impressed with 

 the apphcation of several of the passages to the author himself, Avho ap- 

 pears, however, to be perfectly unconscious of the resemblance. At the 

 time he Avrote this concerning Daubenton, he was walking with rapid 

 strides in his steps, and how he surpassed him is best told by the state of 

 the whole of the above establishment at the time of M. Cuvier's death. I 

 understand that considerable difficulty has been felt more than once in 

 writing the ^loge of M. Cuvier. A selection from his own concerning 

 others might be made with the strictest justice, and the utmost aptitude; 

 and the candid praise he delighted to bestow on his colleagues would thus 

 in every respect be his best eulogium, 



I 



