BARON CUVIER. 199 



the nourishment of their offspring to others, 

 when capable of affording it themselves ; and, 

 though unacknowledged, to M. Dessesserts was 

 Rousseau indebted for the first pages of his 

 Emile. 



The next subject of biographical notice is 

 Henry Cavendish, that remarkable Englishman, 

 who, notwithstanding his splendid fortune and 

 his noble birth, pursued science with the 'most 

 disinterested ardour. How M. Cuvier appreci- 

 ated his labours, will be gathered from the fol- 

 lowing passage : — *' All that science revealed 

 to him, seemed to be tinctured with the sublime 

 and the marvellous : he weighed the earth, he 

 prepared the means of navigating through the 

 air, he deprived water of its elementary quality ; 

 and these doctrines, so new, and so opposed to 

 received opinions, were demonstrated by him in 

 a manner still more extraordinary than the dis- 

 covery itself. The writings where he lays them 

 before others, are so many chefs d'oeuvre of wis- 

 dom and method ; perfect in their whole, and 

 perfect in their details, in which no other hand 

 has found any thing to reform, and the splendour 



of which has only increased with time 



so that there can be no temerity in predicting, 

 that he will reflect back upon his house much 



6 4 



