144 MEMOIRS OF 



jected several which were offered to him. Twice, at diffe- 

 rent periods, did he refuse the directorship for hfe of the 

 Museum of Natural History, and at another, to enter the 

 ministry, — an advancement which at that time no one 

 thought of repulsing ; and the greater number of the fa- 

 vours conferred, reached him during his absence, and were 

 wholly unexpected. It was during his journey to Mar- 

 seilles that the Institute appointed him perpetual secretaiy ; 

 it was while in Holland that he received from Napoleon, 

 an endowment, with the title of Chevalier ; he was at 

 Rome when the Moniteur informed him of his having 

 been named Maitre des Requetes ; in England, when he 

 was elected to the Academic Fran^aise ; it was in the 

 midst of studious retirement, when he had, as it were, shut 

 out the world, that the rank of Peer of France crowned 

 his administrative career ; and, lastly, on the day of his 

 death, his nomination to the Presidency of the entire 

 Council of State was presented for the signature of his so- 

 vereign.* It may, therefore, be safely said, that honours 

 sought him ; and now, that his decease has left so great 

 a void in every institution, in every learned and adminis- 

 trative body which could boast of his name on their lists, and 

 most of which were so powerfully served by his labours, I 

 trust that his actions, and the noble disinterestedness of his 

 character will be acknowledged, and that the breath of en- 

 vy will no longer dare to mingle with the testimonials of 

 admiration which are to be heard on all sides. 



There is yet another sort of reproach, which the inven- 

 tors of systems overthrown by M. Cuvier have dared to 

 bring against him. These, wounded by self-love, or con- 

 tradicted in some cherished fancy, have not feared to attri- 

 bute to pride, or even to a feeling of jealousy, very far from 

 his noble heart, the reserve with which he admitted certain 

 explanations of the phenomena of nature, and the resist- 

 ance he offered to limited or defective theories, the errors and 

 insufficiency of which his penetration and profound know- 

 ledge instantly led him to discover. This resistance, how- 



* I do not reckon among these honours the election to almost every 

 learned body in the two hemispheres; for of course, all Avere anxious to 

 pay so just a tribute to M. Cuvier's pre-eminence. 



