d and
even surpassed himself in the high esteem he felt for "the celebrated
author of the _Philosophie Zoologique_."

The eulogy by Cuvier, which gives most fully the details of the early
life of Lamarck, and which has been the basis for all the subsequent
biographical sketches, was unworthy of him. Lamarck had, with his
customary self-abnegation and generosity, aided and favored the young
Cuvier in the beginning of his career,[50] who in his _Regne Animal_
adopted the classes founded by Lamarck. Thoroughly convinced of the
erroneous views of Cuvier in regard to cataclysms, he criticised and
opposed them in his writings in a courteous and proper way without
directly mentioning Cuvier by name or entering into any public debate
with him.

When the hour came for the great comparative anatomist and
palaeontologist, from his exalted position, to prepare a tribute to the
memory of a naturalist of equal merit and of a far more thoughtful and
profound spirit, to be read before the French Academy of Sciences, what
a eulogy it was--as De Blainville exclaims, _et quel eloge_! It was not
printed until after Cuvier's death, and then, it is stated, portions
were omitted as not suitable for publication.[51] This is, we believe,
the only stain on Cuvier's life, and it was unworthy of the great man.
In this _eloge_, so different in tone from the many others which are
collected in the three volumes of Cuvier's eulogies, he indiscriminately
ridicules all of Lamarck's theories. Whatever may have been his
condemnation of Lamarck's essays on physical and chemical subjects, he
might have been more reserved and less dogmatic and sarcastic in his
estimate of what he supposed to be the value of Lamarck's views on
evolution. It was Cuvier's adverse criticisms and ridicule and his
anti-evolutional views which, more than any other single cause, retarded
the progress of biological science and the adoption of a working theory
of evolution for which the world had to wait half a century.

It even appears that Lamarck was in part instrumental in inducing Cuvier
in 1795 to go to Paris from Normandy, and become connected with the
Museum. De Blainville relates that the Abbe Tessier met the young
zooelogist at Valmont near Fecamp, and wrote to Geoffroy that "he had
just discovered in Normandy a pearl," and invited him to do what he
could to induce Cuvier to come to Paris. "I made," said Geoffroy, "the
proposition to my _confreres_, but I was supported, a