historical and literary works. “It was thus,” says M. Flourens, “ that she developed and fostered that passion for reading, and that extended curi- osity, which, as Cuvier says in his memoirs, were the mainsprings of his life.”
At the academy of Stuttgardt, Cuvier received an excellent education, and when driven to battle with the necessities of life at eighteen, and seek a subsis- tence in a foreign land, he was rich not only in knowledge, but in the confidence acquired by the constant successes of his scholastic life.
The career of John Hunter differs from the others I have enumerated in one very important point. His father died early, and it was his misfortune to have a carelessly indulgent mother, so that he passed his boyhood in sauntering, in country sports, and in cabinet-making. It was not till the age of twenty, that hearing of his brother’s success, he gave up the ‘“‘ dolce far niente” for the rest of his life; came to London—entered William Hunter’s dissecting room, and worked as few have worked before or since. Poverty and contempt had been imminent, but he burst with giant strength the bonds of habit which had hitherto confined him, and escaped from the threatening spectres for ever.
This triumph achieved, the rest was compara- tively easy. After this, we must no longer consider his career as an instance of “the pursuit of know- ledge under difficulties.” On the contrary, he had many special advantages. “‘ He began,” says Sir C. Bell, “to work for himself on the excellent basis of his brother’s labours.” William was a man of good
