MEMOIR. xiil 
Animal” appeared; and as the first and second Prefaces of the author, 
which will be found in the present volume, abundantly explain the nature 
and objects of that great performance, and the circumstances under which 
it was undertaken, we do not feel ourselves at liberty to dwell upon the 
subject. In reference, however, to the important question of classifica- 
tion, it is of some consequence that we should render complete justice to 
the original labours of Cuvier. 
Those who are familiar with the works of the antient philosopher, 
Aristotle, will be astonished to find that, in an age so remote as that in 
which he flourished, the true principles on which the classification of animals 
should be effected were perfectly well understood. Mankind, at least, seem 
to have been contented with them, inasmuch as no attempt, from the days 
of that Father of Naturalists to the age of Linnzus, was ever made to 
alter the system of the former. The attempt made by Linneus to im- 
prove upon Aristotle, is held by Lamarck to have been successful in these 
respects, that the Swede uses the term mammalia, which is sufficiently 
that he has put the Whales into that class—that he forms 
the Reptiles into a separate class, placing them between the Birds and 
the Fishes. If we can suppose these changes to be incorporated with 
the system of Aristotle, there will be very little difference between that 
system and the one universally adopted in modern times. It follows, 
distinctive 
therefore, that the improvement in the right distribution of animals 
effected by Linneus, is comparatively trifling, and, in our view, much in- 
ferior in the depth and importance of its principles to that which was 
discovered and established by the subject of this biography. 
Whilst Aristotle exhibited wonderful judgment in his arrangements, 
still he had no true notion of the laws which regulate species; he was 
confounded altogether by the limits of the variation of species, and here 
it is that the second Aristotle has been able triumphantly to succeed. 
Cuvier studied ardently and incessantly the nature of the conditions that 
allow of the developement of individuals or species in the form in which 
they appear, and the results of his original and wonderful labours have 
cast a light over the mysteries of living nature, such as discloses them in 
a condition in which they are most calculated for our comprehension. 
Cuvier, in traversing the relics of the antient world, and comparing them 
with the structures which compose the breathing beings of this, disco- 
vered the talisman which opened every locked treasure to his hand, in 
the simple law that every part of any animal, and in some, the very smallest 
portion, constitutes a certain index of the character in all respects of the 
rest. The successful ‘application. of this law is one of the greatest 
triumphs of the genius of Cuvier. 
The Bourbons increased in their attachment to the illustrious natur- 
