Cuvier was slightly built in his young days, and moderately tall; but the sedentary nature of his work and his carelessness about taking proper exercise, produced corpulence in his later years, and his extreme near-sightedness brought on a slight stoop in his shoulders. His hair had been light in colour, and to the last it flowed in fine curls over one of the noblest heads ever seen. He was handsome and had regular features, with an aquiline nose, a broad forehead, and keen eyes. The love of order, which was his very peculiarity in his work, was seen in little things, for Cuvier was almost feminine in his attention to dress. He even took in hand the costume of the University, and designed the embroidery of his court suits. Cuvier’s manners were dignified and yet not ceremonious; for accustomed to mingle with the highest of all classes and countries, and naturally desirous of paying a just tribute of respect and good will to everybody, he was likely to be generally polished and courteous. He was stately enough sometimes, and his reserve with strangers who were not open with him was mainly—as is usually the case with others—from mere shyness and timidity. To the young he was always kind and sympathizing. When at the Institute Cuvier’s manner was always stately, for he was with his peers there, and perhaps he might have occasionally felt it necessary to retain an appearance of reserve during the sometimes not very scientific discussions of that mixed assemblage. Cuvier, notwithstanding his great patience when he was at work, and his singular placidity when on the face of a difficult point in natural history or anatomy, was what is called a “Turk” at home, and with others. Accustomed to most minute exactitude, and to regulate his hands by his rapidly working brain, he was singularly impatient with other people who had to serve under him. He used to hasten his workmen, so that his orders were often performed with difficulty. He was hard to bear with, and any waste of time the result of carelessness, put him in a rage. Anything wrong at table in his house, to be kept waiting, or some trifling disobedience, would rouse an absurd amount of anger. His irritability was excessive, and he frequently forgot himself in his scoldings, and had to make reparation afterwards. But he was always ready to testify that he had been wrong, and to do his best to make amends; nevertheless, he did not improve in this particular, and he never had great control over his feelings. No labour, however minute and prolonged, irritated him when he believed that it was requisite for the attainment of an object; still he could not listen to a few pages of a book which taught nothing, without expressing himself very decidedly. From what has been written of Cuvier’s domestic life, it could not have been very enjoyable by those around him, and yet it was the kind of life which has to be led by most prominent men in science, art, and literature. Work, everlasting work,