278 MEMOIRS OF 



in the highest degree, that patience which has 

 been said to be always necessary for the discovery 

 of some important truth, and which, according 

 to Buffon, and according to M. Cuvier himself, 

 constitutes the genius of a well-ordered mind. 

 No labour, however minute, irritated him when 

 he believed it to be requisite for the attainment 

 of his object ; and this patience was really a virtue 

 in that man, w^hose blood would boil at a false 

 reasoning, or a sophism, — who could not listen to 

 a few pages of a book that tauglit nothing, or a 

 work that bore the marks of prejudice or passion, 

 without feeling the greatest irritation j and so 

 far did he carry his patient investigation, that he 

 even examined the least details of those element- 

 ary books which were to further instruction, and 

 directed the construction of several of the geo- 

 graphical maps of M. Selves, himself colouring 

 the models." * 



In person M. Cuvier was moderately tall, and 

 in youth slight ; but the sedentary nature of his 

 life had induced corpulence in his later years, and 

 his extreme near-sightedness brought on a slight 

 stoop in the shoulders. His hair had been light 

 in colour, and to the last flow^ed in the most 

 picturesque curls, over one of the finest heads 



* Laurillard. 



