BARON CUVIER. 233 



that it becomes difficult, and, in fact, almost 

 impossible, to speak of them separately. Called 

 to these important charges when all required to 

 be revived and reorganised, it is scarcely pos- 

 sible for us to conceive the difficulties that were 

 presented to him : but with what vigour and 

 talent did he put all into action ! Public In- 

 struction being attached to the Presidency, he 

 was obliged to draw out the plans for study; to 

 regulate the discipline of the schools ; to decide 

 according to the actual necessities of a new 

 order of society; and, nevertheless, only to obey 

 these necessities so long as they did not inter- 

 fere with those principles of public or domestic 

 order, without which there is no repose, either 

 in a family or a state : in short, to give the rising 

 generation the knowledge and habits most cal- 

 culated to preserve the great ties of society, and 

 to select those who were most worthy of disse- 

 minating such knowledge into every part of the 

 kingdom. How vast then must have been 

 that capacity which, besides these duties, em- 

 braced every branch of science and literature ! 

 I dare not dispute that others may have been 

 equally gifted by a beneficent Creator, but I 

 dare affirm, that the one ruling principle of 

 order was the human agency by which M. Cu- 



