STUDIES IN ANIMAL LIFE. " 145 



for " Citizen Cuvier," he inquired for Monsieur Cu- 

 vier ; whereupon the lackey politeily asked -whether 

 he wished to see M. le Baron Cuvier, or M. Frede- 

 ric, his brother ? "I soon found where I was,'' 

 continues Pfaff. " It was the baron, separated from 

 me by that immense interval of thirty years, and by 

 those high dignities which an empire offers to the 

 ambition of men." He found the baron almost 

 exclusively interested in politics, and scarcely giv- 

 ing a thought to science. The "preparations" and 

 "injections" which Pfaff had brought with him 

 from Germany as a present to Cuvier were scarce- 

 ly looked at, and were set aside with an indifferent 

 " that's good," and " very fine ;" much to Pfaff's 

 distress, who doubtless thought the fate of the Mar- 

 tignac ministry an extremely small subject of in- 

 terest compared with these injections of the lym- 

 phatics. 



But it is not my purpose to paint Cuvier in his 

 later years. It is to the studies of his youth that I 

 would call your attention, to read there, once again, 

 the important lesson that nothing of any solid value 

 can be achieved without entire devotion. Nothing 

 is earned without sweat of the brow. Even the 

 artist must labor intensely. What is called "in- 

 spiration" will create no works, but only irradiate 

 works with felicitous flashes ; and even inspiration 

 mostly comes in moments of exaltation produced 

 by intense work of the mind. In science, incessant 

 G 



