How is cuvier best known now?
"Luck or Cunning?"
Samuel Butler
We all know how large a share social influences have in deciding what kind of reception a book or theory is to meet with; true, these influences are not permanent, but at first they are almost irresistible; in reality it was not the theory of descent that was matched against that of fixity, but Lamarck against cuvier; who can be surprised that cuvier for a time should have had the best of it?
"Luck or Cunning?"
Samuel Butler
It had to face the reaction in favour of the Church which began in the days of the First Empire, as a natural consequence of the horrors of the Revolution; it had to face the social influence and then almost Darwinian reputation of cuvier, whom Lamarck could not, or would not, square; it was put forward by one who was old, poor, and ere long blind.
"Luck or Cunning?"
Samuel Butler
