BARON CUVIER. 219 



eloquent, more fascinating than ever. The sub- 

 ject was likely to inspire him, and his audience 

 were not disappointed ; they left the lecture- 

 room, forgetting their favourite professor, for 

 the moment, in his description of his great pre- 

 decessor. 



The twelfth lecture was devoted to the ad- 

 vantages which accrued to science, in conse- 

 quence of the labours of Aristotle. From these 

 the Professor passed to a rapid sketch of the 

 history of the Ptolemies ; and before he laid the 

 world before his hearers, in the state in which 

 it w^as under the dominion of the Romans, he 

 glanced over the Carthaginians and Etrurians. 

 Having at length reached the masters of the 

 globe, he gave a full description of those mag- 

 nificent feasts, and those combats of animals, 

 which put every known quarter of the earth 

 under contribution, and passed all their learned 

 men in review. Then tracing the state of sci- 

 ence during the great struggles which established 

 Christianity, and during its languid existence in 

 the Byzantine Empire, M. Cuvier led the atten- 

 tion towards the Arabs, who cultivated some 

 branches with success. He then followed it 

 into the different nations composed of the WTecks 

 of the Western Empire, and through the slight 



