BARON CUVIER. 317 



with SO much real enjoyment;" and he rapidly 

 advanced, not only in the vast undertakings then 

 begun, but in the preparations for others. On 

 Tuesday, the 8th of May, he opened the third 

 and concluding part of his course of lectures, at 

 the College de France, on the History of Sci- 

 ence, &c., by summing up all that had been pre- 

 viously said. He forcibly inveighed against 

 that heresy in natural history, which derives 

 every thing in this vast imi verse from one iso- 

 lated and systematic thought, and shackles the 

 future of science with the fallacious progress of 

 the moment * : he pointed out what remained 

 for him to say respecting the earth and its 

 changes, and announced his intention of unfold- 

 ing his own manner of viewing the present state 

 of creation ; a sublime task, which was to lead 

 us, independent of narrow systems, back to that 

 Supreme Intelligence, which rules, enlightens, 

 and vivifies, w^iich gives to every creature the 

 especial conditions of its existence, to that in- 

 telligence, in short, which reveals all, and 

 which all reveals, which contains every thing, 



* Alluding to the theory of unity of composition. This 

 and the following citations are taken from a description of 

 this admirable lecture, as noted by a distinguished auditor, 

 the Baron de H . 



