314 MEMOIRS OF 



finished, he offered to pay the requisite sum ; 

 but tlie enhghtened operator, who happened to 

 be a Gascon, bowed, and positively refused the 

 money, saying, with his comic accent, " he was 

 too much honoured, by having shaved the great- 

 est man of the age, to accept any recompense." 

 Hardly suppressing a smile, M. Cuvier felt 

 bound to give him the honour to its full extent, 

 and engaged him to perform his function every 

 day while he remained in London. It is scarcely 

 necessary to add, that the barber, in a short 

 time, felt it a still liigher duty to consult pru- 

 dence rather than empty honour, and pocketed 

 the amount due for tlie exercise of his calling. 



Althougli occasionally subject to slight ail- 

 ments, tlie health of M. Cuvier, generally speak- 

 ing, was good, and his carriage was used by him 

 more as a saving of time than a matter of neces- 

 sity ; therefore the sudden summons he received 

 to quit his earthly labours, w^as an event for 

 which his friends and his country were not pre- 

 pared. Never were his intellectual faculties more 

 brilliant ; never was his great mind more fully pos- 

 sessed of that clearness, tliat comprehensiveness, 

 which so peculiarly marked it, than at the time 

 of his seizure. His life of temperance and recti- 

 tude, at the age of sixty-two, had preserved the 



