Cuvier’s Historical Eloge qf Werner. IS 
but having once listened to him, that science became the pro- 
fession of their lives. 
It is to this irresistible influence, that the scientific world has 
been indebted for those laborious authors, who have described^ 
with so much care, the different modes under v/hich minerals 
exist, and those indefatigable observers who have torn from the 
globe all its veils of mystery. Karsten and Wiedeman in the 
cabinet; Humboldt, Von Buch, Daubuisson, Hermann, and 
Freiesleben, on the summits of the Cordilleras, amidst the 
flames of Vesuvius and ^tna, in the desarts of Siberia, in the 
depths of the mines of Hungary, of Mexico, and Potosi, have 
been led on by the genius of their Master : they have attached 
the honour of their labours to him ; and we may say of him, 
what had formerly been said with truth of Linnaeus only, that 
every where Nature has been interrogated in his name. 
Pew teachers have enjoyed this pure and unreserved grati- 
tude to the same degree ; but, perhaps, no one ever better de- 
served it by his paternal feelings. He grudged nothing for the 
good of his scholars : his time, his exertions, were at their dis- 
posal. If he knew of any of them that were in occasional need, 
his purse was open to them. When his audience became so nu- 
merous that every one could not conveniently see what he ex- 
hibited, he divided the students, and repeated his lecture. His 
door was never shut to them : his meals were commonly taken 
with some of them in company, as if it had been his wish that 
not a moment should be lost to their improvement. 
Such a master might safely devolve the care of his reputation 
upon his scholars ; and they, accordingly, have been the instru- 
ments of diffusing it. Like Socrates, in this respect also, to 
whom he has been compared for so many other qualities, his 
ideas were almost solely known from the notes which had been 
taken during his prelections. Whether it was that he was sa- 
tisfied with the irresistible influence which his oral communica- 
tions gave him, or whether the vivacity of his imagination, could 
not endure the ennui of writing, it was with the utmost reluc- 
tance that he determined to publish one or two pamphlets, or to 
give some articles for the Journals. He talked as much as any 
one desired, and his conversation was always that of a man of 
genius, as well as that of a man of kind feelings. During whole 
