In 1808, as secretary to the National Institute, Cuvier had to write a report on the progress of the natural sciences from the year 1789. A mere report was required, but Cuvier was too thorough, and his essay was an admirable and most lucid treatise. Napoleon, then emperor, was greatly struck with it, and presented the paper to the council of state. Some of the sentences should be written in letters of gold in every senate and learned by heart by all politicians. “The true object of science is to lead the mind of man towards its noble destination—a knowledge of truth—to spread sound and useful ideas among the lowest classes of the people, to draw human beings from the effects of prejudices and passions, to make reason the arbitrator and supreme guide of public opinion.” Napoleon, who nearly always chose the best men for a place, made Cuvier a counsellor of the new Imperial University, and the two men thus came frequently in contact. Repeated personal interviews preceded Cuvier’s appointment to organize new universities in the foreign states more or less under the sway of France. He undertook the reorganization of the old Italian universities of Piedmont, Genoa, and Tuscany. His reports of these missions speak of the enlightenment of his mind and his truly reasonable and very liberal spirit. Speaking of the universities of Tuscany, he deprecates a too hasty and rash interference with institutions which had been founded and maintained by so many distinguished men of old and in which he found so much to praise and to retain. He made good use of his time in Tuscany by taking drawings of and collecting fossil bones, and in 1811 his great work on the fossil remains of animals appeared. He examined into the condition of the universities of Holland, and finally those of lower Germany. These journeys were doubly useful, for they established his health and gave him plenty of opportunity of visiting museums. While at Hamburg, Napoleon gave him the title of chevalier, which was confirmed to him and his heirs. But such honours were not destined to descend, for Cuvier lost his son in his seventh year. It was a great grief, and it saddened and subdued the man. This trial happened when Cuvier was at Rome, trying to arrange the universities there. Being a Protestant, the mission was one requiring peculiar forbearance and firmness. Yet the enlightened tolerance of Cuvier, and his mild and benignant manners, gained for him the esteem and respect of all parties. Risen from the ranks, having been poor and often anxious to know how to learn, Cuvier was a capital man for his position. He paid particular attention not only to the higher branches of education, but also to popular or elementary education. His principle was that instruction would lead to civilization, and civilization to morality, and therefore that primary or elementary instruction should give to the people every means of fully exercising their industry, without disgusting them with their condition.