18 MEMOIR OF PALLAS. 
“¢ When a man,” says Baron Cuvier, “ devotes 
his whole life to science; when entirely occupied 
in making observations and in recording them, the 
only suspension in his researches being that required 
for their publication, it will easily be imagined that 
his life will not exhibit many striking incidents, 
and will be read accurately only in the analysis of 
his works. But if, besides, working only for men 
of science of his own grade, he despises all orna- 
ment; if to assist him in the accumulation of facts, 
he always clothes them in the simplest and most 
meagre expressions, and leaves to others the humble 
merit of deducing the results, then this analysis be- 
comes almost impossible; and to make known his 
works, it is necessary that we should copy them, 
These remarks apply to Pallas. Removed in youth 
from his family and country, a third of his life 
was spent in the desert, and the rest in his study ; 
and in both these situations he made an immense 
number of observations, and wrote a great many 
memoirs and volumes. All his writings dry, and 
not composed with the object of pleasing, are yet 
filled with important and novel remarks: they have 
elevated the name of the author to the first rank 
among naturalists, who peruse them without ceas- 
ing, and quote them in every page ; they are studied 
and consulted with pleasure by the historian and 
the geographer, by those who study the philosophy 
of language, and the moral condition of the different 
races of mankind. But it is precisely this multitude 
of his labours, and their diversity, which compels 
