BARON CUVIER. 159 



fering us to talk as much as we pleased. Many of his 

 most brilliant memoirs were finished as he thus rode 

 through the streets of Paris ; and he had a lamp fixed to 

 the back of his carriage, that he might read on his return 

 home at night from his visits ; but he found it so distress- 

 ing to his eyes, that he could not long make use of it. All 

 others, however, were delighted at the disappointment, be- 

 cause he was by it cheated into a k\v more moments of 

 repose. 



Pjivileged as Mr. Bowdich and myself were to inspect 

 the vast treasures in his collections, and in his librar}^, at 

 our leisure, we yet found it much more agreeable to take 

 the books home with us ; frequently we required the very 

 volume to which he had been referring before his departure, 

 and which was generally left open upon his table, to be 

 again used on his return ; for he had the happy faculty of 

 resuming his subject at any moment, in any place, and at 

 any part, even in the middle of a sentence. Waiting, 

 then, till his carriage was driven frojii the door, bearing him 

 away for several hours to his administrative duties, we went 

 up to his room, took possession of the book, and inquiring 

 the hour of his return, fled back with it five minutes be- 

 fore it was wanted. To be sure, in consequence of our 

 having been a little too late on one or two occasions, — a 

 circumstance which he bore with surprising good humour, 

 — we used occasionally to see some of his household arrive 

 at our hotel, in breathless haste, to inquire for a volume 

 which had long been missing. Generally speaking, we 

 were innocent of the misdemeanour ; but such was his in- 

 dulgent goodness to us, that he not only facilitated eveiy 

 desire, ev^ery endeavour to obtain improvement, but even 

 allowed us to publish, for the first time, some of his own 

 drawings of Mollusca. He had no idea of exclusion to- 

 wards any one who he thought would make a proper use 

 of the materials he could furnish ; so that we had only to 

 ask, and orders were given to the keepers of the galleries to 

 take out of the cases any object which was needed for our 

 closer examination.* 



* Though perhaps somewhat foreign to my subject, I cannot forbear 

 making use of the first opportunity afforded me of expressing my grati 

 tude to many connected with this vast and magnificent establishment. 

 M. Desfontaines, M, de Jussieu, M. Brongniart, M. Geoffroy St. Hilairo 



