Excerpt from The Animal Kingdom: Arranged After Its Organization, Forming a Natural History of Animals, and an Introduction to Comparative Anatomy
Perhaps no book was ever so soon, so generally, and with so little envy, admitted to take its place at the head of that department of knowledge to which it belongs, as the Regne Animal of the illustrious Baron Cuvier. This is a high, but a just tribute, both to the work and the author; for it at once showed that the former, is what had long been required, and that the latter was as much beloved for the kindness and urbanity of his manners, as he was admired for the comprehensive range and unprecedented accuracy of his views.
It must, indeed, be admitted, that, until Cuvier's great work made its appearance, we had no modern systematic arrangement of animals which applied equally to all the Classes, Orders, and Families; - which brought the extinct species into their proper situations in the living catalogue, and enabled every discoverer of a new animal, or part of an animal, instantly to connect it with its proper tribe or family. Important, however, as are the labours of this great naturalist, they could not possibly extend beyond the limits of what was known; and as Cuvier was no speculative theorist, but a rigid adherent to nature and fact, he kept his system considerably within the limits of those who were more speculative, and consequently less accurate.
For students, no work is equal to that of Cuvier, for it is at once comprehensive and concise; and though the student may choose a particular department, and require books more in detail with reference to that department, he must still have the Regne Animal to point out to him the general analogies of the living creation. The present work is a complete Cuvier, as regards the essential part of the arrangement; and it is not a mere translation, but in some respects a new book, embodying the original one. Throughout the whole of it, there will be found original remarks; but these are always distinguished from that which belongs to Cuvier, by being inclosed within brackets.
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