Memoirs of Baron Cuvier Author:R. Lee Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PART II. That portion of my work which now lies before me has a grandeur and extent of subject which none but the life of M. Cuvier could present, and though ... more »I have confined myself to a mere description of his scientific labours, it will, in size, exceed all the others. But thus to follow him through this part of his vast career, thus to show him in the light of a savant, is no easy task; for, though a simple catalogue of his publications might have astonished by its length, it would have been very inadequate to my purpose. I have therefore attempted to carry my readers through each undertaking, by giving the outline of every plan,, its purport, and its mode of execution; citing M. Cuvier's own sentiments and reflections in order to confirm that which is set forth, and occasionally giving even his own words, as examples of that style which was part of himself. I have also deemed it advisable to point out, in as brief a manner as possible, the state of natural history at the time he appeared, that a better estimate may be formedof the important revolutions which he either completed, or for which he laid the foundation. Notwithstanding the great endeavours made in the earlier part of the seventeenth century towards the progress of natural history, as a science, there yet remained, when M. Cuvier first entered the learned world, as much to be done as had been effected since the revival of letters. The perfect form in which plants can be preserved with comparatively little trouble, the small expense at which they can be procured, and the narrow compass in which collections can be contained, gave them great advantages over other branches of natural history. Accordingly, we find that Botany had most profited by the exertions of several illustrious naturalists; it had even assumed tha...« less