MEMOIR OF BARON CUVIER. 
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ALTHOUGH France is entitled to all the glory which is reflected upon 
her by the fame of the illustrious Cuvier, yet he was only her child by 
adoption, if we are to consider the claims of locality as capable of deciding 
the point of affinity between country and individuals. He was born 
on the 23d of August, 1769, at Montbeillard, which was, at the period 
of his birth, and for several years ufterwards, included in the duchy of 
Wirtemberg. Here it was that his father had ultimately chosen his re- 
sidence, after having devoted the best years of his life to the military 
service. The elder Cuvier was a Swiss, who had in early life entered the 
French army, and, having faithfully adhered to the government of France, 
he, at the conclusion of his active labours, retired to his native town of 
Montbeillard, on a small pension, which eventually was considerably in- 
creased by the revenue accruing from a fresh appointment as com- 
mandant of the artillery. 
In his childhood, the subject of our memoir exhibited all the charac- 
teristic marks of a feeble constitution. The cares of his mother were for 
this reason redoubled; and her affectionate vigilance was rewarded in the 
unceasing veneration of the surviving object of it to the latest moment of 
his existence. It was to her that he was indebted for his early devotion 
to books and the art of drawing. He was successively placed in the in- 
stitutions for education in its various branches, which had, even at that 
early period, been common in the country ; and, it is a curious fact, that 
his first impressions of partiality for natural history were derived from the 
sight of a Gesner with coloured plates, and also from the perusal of those 
accompanying the work of Buffon, of which a copy was by accident 
accessible to him. The sort of talent displayed by young Cuvier 
whilst still occupied in the rudimentary schools of Montbeillard, was of a 
nature to point him out as a fit candidate for the church; and, as he was 
educated in the Protestant religion, the local government, which was Pro- 
testant also, took the usual measures for securing the services of such a 
promising auxiliary in maintaining a religion surrounded by an opposition 
of the most formidable nature. 
In furtherance of these views, Cuvier was sent to Studtgard, and was 
placed, by order of Prince Charles of Wirtemberg, in the college called 
VOL. I. b 
