Marie-Henri Ducrotay de Blainville. 213 
' He was of medium stature, but of remarkable vigour. His 
eye, lively and penetrating, indicated a superior intelligence. 
The simplicity of his exterior left us to infer his confidence 
in a personal value which would owe nothing to honorary 
distinctions—distinctions to which he had proved his entire 
indifference. No vain show or petty vanity lessened this 
man. It seemed as if he had said to himself that by study 
alone his life could be sufficiently distinguished. However, 
under all its coverings, the heart was always in its right 
place; and even when it appeared impenetrable, if it did vi- 
brate, its emotions were only the more lively. 
Having become proprietor of the small seignorial domain 
of his ancestors, M. de Blainville went every year to look 
upon its plains and hills, to breathe the invigorating sea 
air, and invite the breeze which had cradled his early years 
to evoke pleasing recollections. During the time he occu- 
pied his small manor-house; the savant disappeared, and the 
gentleman was not a grumbler. Those who courted his society 
in his country-house were received with perfect amiability, 
which reminded them at once of the advantages of birth and 
Superior acquirements; and he displayed in society, espe- 
cially in that of ladies, a real coquetry of mind and agree- 
able manners, which threw back into the distant horizon, and 
among the mists of science, everything that savoured of the 
misanthropical. 
_ This pleasure, arising from recollections, found another 
aliment in the assembling of representatives of all the epochs 
of M. de Blainville’s life. Frequently meeting in his house, 
this circle of friends opened their ranks to all the philoso- 
phies, to the most opposite opinions, to all social positions, 
and to all ages; for the severe critic and profound thinker 
could not disguise his regard for the youngest among them. 
In return for so sincere an affection, an entire devotedness 
now consecrates the pious cares of filial regard to his illus- 
trious memory. 
In the beginning of the year 1850, M. de Blainville thought 
himself obliged, notwithstanding the alteration in his health, 
to open his course to the Faculty of Sciences. He re- 
appeared in his first lectures with an ability which had lost 
nothing either of its strength or lustre. 
