BARON CUVIER. 185 



with the most enthusiastic pleasure, httle fore- 

 seeing the obstacles and difficulties he should 

 encounter. Badly supported by liis govern- 

 ment, at times wholly neglected, he for two 

 years was unable even to make the proper pur- 

 chases, and at length was obliged to pledge his 

 own property in order to extricate himself from 

 the embarrassments caused by the conduct of 

 those in whose promises he had confided. He 

 had flattered himself that all would have been 

 completed in three months, but after two years 

 of painful travelling, incredible fatigue, oppo- 

 sition, and even humiliation of every kind, the 

 flock he had assembled was scarcely, by one 

 third, equal to what it ought to have been. His 

 bodily strength at last yielded to all these suf- 

 ferings, and he was carried off by a malignant 

 fever, after an illness of nine days. 



Darcet, the confidential friend of Montes- 

 quieu, his assistant in collecting and arranging 

 the immense materials for the *' Esprit des 

 Loix," and the preceptor of the young Montes- 

 quieu, never lost sight of his chemical researches 

 amid these duties, and he discovered and caused 

 the execution of wonderful improvements in the 

 porcelain of France. 



The history of Dr. Priestley is too well known 



