!:204 MEMOIRS OF 



this biography are some remarkable passages 

 concerning slavery. 



M. Cuvier's brotherly feeling, — his gratitude, if 

 I may so express myself, — towards all promoters 

 of science, is nowhere more strongly manifested 

 than in his eulogium on Sir Joseph Banks, the 

 distinguished and munificent patron of scientific 

 laboiu'ers. The travels and adventures of Sir 

 Joseph are here related with vivacity ; and the 

 famous dispute about points and buttons to elec- 

 trical conductors, which placed him at the head 

 of the Royal Society, and which, in other hands, 

 might have afforded much scope for ridicule, is 

 touched on with a delicacy peculiar to M. Cu- 

 vier's disposition. Nor is this eloge less remark- 

 able for the honourable testimony given to a 

 nation which has been but too often regarded 

 with jealousy, and which has but too often met 

 these sentiments with a reciprocal feeling. *' Tlie 

 savans of England," says the Baron Cuvier, 

 *' have taken an equally glorious part in those 

 mental labours which are common to all civilised 

 people : they have confronted the eternal frosts 

 of either pole; they have not left a corner of the 

 two oceans un visited ; they have increased the 

 catalogue of nature tenfold ; heaven has been 

 peopled by them with planets, satellites, and un- 



