Documents in Commemoration of Baron Cuvier. 309 



2. Subscription for a monument to the memory of G. Cuvier. 



At the session of the academy of sciences at Paris on the 9th of 

 Julys 1832, the following prospectus was distributed among the Acade- 

 micians. 



The unexpected stroke which has taken from us our great natu- 

 ralists, has spread mourning not only throughout France, but in all 

 parts of the globe where science is held in honor. George Cuvier 

 was one of those privileged geniuses which appear only at long in- 

 tervals. 



France has been long distinguished for the love and respect which 

 she bears for the great men whom she has produced ; she knows that 

 they constitute her highest glory, and this glory must survive all other. 



France knows also, that at the period in which we live, it is more 

 than ever important to draw more closely the fraternal band which 

 unites enlightened men of every nation ; she will not be diverted by 

 the political agitations which are working within her, from the great 

 duty which this noble confraternity imposes upon her. 



The king has already confided to the chisel of one of our ablest 

 statuaries the task of reproducing for the academy of sciences, the 

 features of the immortal Cuvier. 



The town of Montbeliard will consecrate, by a monument, the 

 honor of having given him birth. 



These homages are insufficient, to honor the memory of him whose 

 labors have benefited the whole human race. Public opinion calls 

 for something further ; it is the wish that a general subscription should 

 invite the friends of science in all nations to concur in the public hon- 

 or which it claims for the Aristotle of modern times. 



Subscribers have presented themselves from all quarters; the 

 learned bodies literary and political, of which Cuvier was a member 

 have been in earnest to lead the subscription. 



To consider of the means of collecting these subscriptions, and 

 concerting upon the nature of the monument to be raised, it appeared 

 most suitable to form a joint committee of members of the Institute 

 of the University, of the Council of State, and of the Society of natu- 

 ral history. 



This joint committee has not hesitated with respect to the proper 

 place for the erection of such a monument : what place indeed could 

 possibly be more appropriate than the garden of plants, the theatre 

 of all the labor of Cuvier. 



