208 MEMOIRS OF 



could be iinmediately pronounced. The taste 

 lor drawings of natural history extended to all 

 branches of tlie art, aiul it was his delight to 

 visit every collection or exhibition of the kind. 

 During his last visit to England he went to Hamp- 

 ton Court, and it was with difHcidty he could tear 

 himself away fiom the cartoons of Jiaffaelle, in 

 order to keep a dinner appointment. The ad- 

 miration he felt for this most wonderfid of all 

 painters amounted to a species of worship; and 

 no one, whether an artist or not, ever compre- 

 hended or delighted in the beauties of Raflfaelle 

 more than did M. Cuvier. His long stay in 

 Italy had refined and confirmed his judgment; 

 and when he was accused of want of proper 

 curiosity for not extending his route as far as 

 Naples, during either of Iiis journeys to Rome, 

 he deemed it suflicient to reply, " At Naples 

 I should not have found the Vatican ! " He was 

 very sensible to the merits of our great Law- 

 rence, to whom he was personally attached, and 

 who had constantly sent him the engravings 

 from his works ; and also to the conception and 

 genius of our Maitin, whose engravings had 

 always excited his attention in J*aris, and whose 

 gallery he visited when last in London. Woe, 

 however, to the artist who committed a fault in 



