BARON CUVIBR'S REPORT. 149 



driving a pencil with great rapidity, and I discovered that he 

 was actually engaged in making his report. I thought of La 

 Fontaine's ' Fable of the Turtle and the Hare,' and of many 

 other things ; and I was surprised that, so great a man, who, 

 of course, being great, must take care of each of his actions 

 with a thousand times more care than a common individual, 

 to prevent falls, when surrounded, as all great men are, by 

 envy, cowardice, malice, and all other evil spirits, should leave 

 to the last moment the writing of a report, to every word of 

 which the ' Forty of France ' would lend a critical ear. We 

 were now in his cabinet ; my enormous book lay before him, 

 and I shifted swiftly the different plates that he had marked 

 for examination. His pencil kept constantly moving ; he turned 

 and returned the sheets of his pamphlet with amazing accuracy, 

 and noted as quickly as he saw all that he saw. We were both 

 wet with perspiration. When this was done, he invited me to 

 call on him to-morrow at half-past ten, and went off towards 

 the council-room. 



"September. 23. I waited in Cuvier's departmental section 

 until pai3t eleven, when he came in, as much in a hurry as ever, 

 and yet as kind as ever — always the perfect gentleman. The 

 report had been read, and the Institute, he said, had subscribed 

 for one copy ; and he told me the report would appear in next 

 Saturday's ' Globe.' I called on M. Feuillet, principal librarian 

 of the Institute, to inquire how I was to receive the subscription. 

 He is a large, stout man, had on a hunting- cap, and began by 

 assuring me that the Institute was in the habit of receiving a 

 discount on all the works it takes. My upper lip curled, not 

 with pleasure, but a sneer at such a request ; and I told the 

 gentleman I never made discounts on a work which cost me a 

 life of trouble and too much expense ever to be remunerated ; 

 so the matter dropped. 



" September 24. To-day I was told that Gerard, the great 

 Gerard, the pupil of my old master David, wished to see me 

 and my works. I propose to visit him to-morrow. 



" September 25. I have trotted from pillar to post through 

 this big town, from the Palais Eoyal to the Jardin du Luxem- 

 bourg, in search of Mons. Le Medecin Bertrand, after a copy 

 of Cuvier's Report ; such is man, all avaricious of praise by 



