BARON CUVIER. 135 



which announced the Dictionary I have just 

 mentioned, rapidly exposes the history of science 

 up to that time, and vouches for the pains taken 

 by the contributors to its pages, that the extent 

 to which science has lately carried her researches 

 should be in every way gratified. Those great 

 names with w^hich M. Cuvier's has been so 

 often associated in France and in England, are 

 mentioned in the first pages, in a manner so in- 

 teresting, and so satisfactory, that I cannot resist 

 the pleasure of quoting his words. The extract 

 is preceded by a view of the advantages which 

 science received from the precepts of Bacon, 

 and is as follows: — -"Nevertheless, it is pro- 

 bable that Natural History would not have so 

 soon arrived at the brilliant condition for which 

 it had been prepared by these wise precepts, had 

 not two of the greatest men who adorned the 

 last century concurred, notwithstanding the op- 

 posite natures of their views and characters (or, 

 perhaps, by this very opposition concurred), in 

 causing its sudden and extensive growth. Lin- 

 naeus and Buffon, in flict, seem to have possessed, 

 each in his own way, those qualities which it was 

 impossible for the same man to combine, and all 

 of which were necessary to give a rapid impulse 

 to the study of nature. Both passionately fond 



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