120 MEMOIRS OF 



his system of cosmogony, which every discovery of re- 

 cent times serves but to confirm. The progress of the 

 nations who sprung from the Egyptians, the diffusion 

 of their learning, the bards, the philosophers, the schools 

 of Greece, were given with a most absorbing interest 

 and beauty, and occupied six lectures. In the eighth, 

 he began his history of Aristotle, the founder of the science 

 of natural history. As might be expected, M. Cuvier 

 became, if possible, more eloquent, more fascinating than 

 ever. The subject was hkely to inspire him, and his 

 audience were not disappointed ; they left ihe lecture-room, 

 forgetting their favourite professor, for the moment, in his 

 description of his great predecessor. 



The twelfth lecture was devoted to the advantages which 

 accrued to science, in consequence of the labours of Aristo- 

 tle. From these the Professor passed to a rapid sketch of 

 the history of the Ptolemies ; and before he laid the world 

 before his hearers, in the state in which it was under the 

 dominion of the Romans, he glanced over the Carthagi- 

 nians and Etrurians. Having at length reached the mas- 

 ters of the globe, he gave a full description of those mag- 

 nificent feasts, and those combats of animals, which put 

 every known quarter of the earth under contribution, and 

 passed all their learned men in review. Then tracing the 

 state of science during the great struggles which establish- 

 ed Christianity, and during its languid existence in the By- 

 zantine Empire, M. Cuvier led the attention towards the 

 Arabs, who cultivated some branches with success. He 

 then followed it into the different nations composed of the 

 wrecks of the Western Empire, and through the slight 

 glimmerings of existence shown during the middle ages, 

 and throwing the same deep tone of interest over every 

 epoch, the revival of letters gave fresh scope to his dis- 

 course. It was no longer a mere dawning, or a decay, 

 which at times seemed hopeless ; but it was a seri^ of 

 brilliant discoveries, which spread their influence over the 

 remotest parts of the world ; and, beginning with print- 

 ing, he, in his opening lecture to the second part of his 

 course, premised, that he should no longer be able to enter 

 into those details which had accompanied his account of 

 preceding ages. The subject became too vast, and during 



