disinterestedness in his efforts to promote science. The qualities
of his heart were not less estimable than those of his head, and he
possessed the happy art of inspiring his friends with an unalterable
attachment. His conversation was varied and animated, adapted by turns
to every subject, and he may truly be said to have been the grace and
ornament of society. We must not forget the great services he rendered
to public education as head of the University; his Report on the
State of Primary Education in Holland is a lasting monument of his
solicitude for the education of the people, and all those who have
observed his conduct with regard to the higher branches of education,
know how constantly his influence was directed to favour their
progress and to remove obstacles. In other departments of the civil
service into which he was successively called, as Master of Requests,
Counsellor of State, President of the Section of the Interior,
Director of Protestant Worship, (for he was an enlightened and liberal
Protestant, and watched over the interests of his co-religionists with
constant solicitude,) and at last as a Peer of France--in all these he
displayed the same superiority of talent. The office of Censor of the
Press, which was offered to him, he, to his eternal honour, refused.
Such was the man whose loss the world has now to deplore: but the mind
that traced her age and history--in the wrecks of ages dug from her
bosom--will live for ever in his works to enlighten and instruct
mankind.--_Foreign Quarterly Review._

Cuvier is said to have died of a paralytic affection of the
oesophagus. His body was examined by several eminent pathologists:
his brain is stated to have presented a mass of extraordinary volume,
weighing three pounds thirteen and a half ounces; a fact which will
be treasured up by contemporary phrenologists as evidence of Cuvier's
great intellectual capabilities.