BARON CUVIER. 139 



niemoTy of one so dear to us, of the learned and virtuous man 

 who deigned to honour me with his goodness, has not ap- 

 peared to me to be out of place, or without interest ; and it 

 is as much for your sake as for my own that it becomes 

 me here to speak of George Cuvier, and to lead you in him 

 to preserve the recollection of one of your most ardent bene- 

 factors. Let this short eulogium serve you as a lesson, and 

 teach you to be always grateful to those who wish us well, 

 and especially to those who do us good." 



During M. Cuvier's direction of the Protestant Faculties 

 he became one of the Vice-Presidents of the Bible Society, 

 and caused the creation of fifty new cures, which had very 

 long been wanting. The protestant churches required 

 fresh regulation and discipline, and for this purpose he col- 

 lected the opinions of the different pastors of these churches, 

 placing in this matter, as well as in all others, great confi- 

 dence in the counsels of experience ; and had, in conse- 

 quence, drawn up the plan of a new law, which was to 

 have been laid before that session in which he did not live 

 to take his seat. The feeling with which the ministers of 

 his own rehgion generally viewed him will be proved by 

 the following extract from the discourse delivered at his 

 funeral by M. Boissard. minister of the protestant church in 

 the Rue des Billettes. " Let us not forget those long aban- 

 doned chapels re-opened to our youth in the royal colleges ; 

 let us not forget the abundant distribution of religious and 

 moral books under his superintendence. Now that his 

 voice is extinct, let us fervently ask of our God, let us ask 

 in the name of our dearest moral interests, in the name of 

 our eternal welfare, to raise up other voices, which may 

 speak with the same eloquence, the same wisdom, and the 

 same authority. We have lost him who, with inviolable 

 attachment, honoured the creed of our forefathers ; whose 

 great name, whose immortal labours, shed so much lustre 

 over our churches; who burdened himself with our eccle- 

 siastical rights in perfect disinterestedness of spirit, and with 

 the purest and most extensive benevolence. What do we 

 not owe to that penetrating glance which revealed to him 

 all that was wanting in our institutions, and under which 

 privations we had so long groaned ! How many meliora- 

 tions took place in a few years ; with what wisdom and 



