France in the same year lost one of its distinguished men of science, by the death of Baron Cuvier, the great naturalist. Georges Leopold Cuvier was born in 1769 at Montbeliard. After studying at Stuttgart he became private tutor in the family of Count D'Hericy in Normandy, where he was at liberty to devote his leisure to natural science and in particular to zoology. A natural classification of the _Vermae_ or worms was his first achievement. The ability and knowledge shown in this work procured him the friendship of the greatest naturalists of France. He was invited to Paris, took a chair at the Ecole Centrale, and was received by the Institute as a member of the first class. His lectures on natural history, distinguished not less for the elegance of their style than for profound knowledge and daring speculation, were attended by some of the most accomplished persons of Paris. In January, 1800, Cuvier was appointed to the College de France. Under Napoleon, who fully recognized his merits, Cuvier held important offices in the department of public instruction. Under the Restoration he was made one of the forty members of the French Academy. In 1831, a year prior to his death, he was appointed a Peer of France. Among the numerous works by which Cuvier greatly expanded the study of natural history may be mentioned as foremost "Researches into Fossil Bones," "Discourse of the Revolutions on the Surface of the Globe," "A Course of Comparative Anatomy," "Natural History of Fishes," and his great work, "The Animal Kingdom," with its subdivisions into the four great classes--vertebrates, mollusks, articulates and radiates. [Sidenote: Death of Goethe] On March 22, Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany's foremost man of letters, expired at Weimar. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born in 1749, at Frankfort-on-the-Main, the son of a councillor under the old German empire. His best traits were inherited from his mother. As he himself sang in later years: Vom Vater hab ich die Statur, Des Lebens ernstes Fuhren, Vom Mutterchen die Frohnatur Und Lust zum Fabuliren.[A] [Footnote A: From my father I have my stature And serious view of life; From dear little mother my glad heart And fondness for telling stories.] [Sidenote: Goethe's career] [Sidenote: "Goetz von Berlichingen"] [Sidenote: "The Sorrows of Werther"] [Sidenote: Goethe at Weimar] [Sidenote: "Hermann und Dorothea"]