If they [enlightened men] take any interest in examining, in the infancy of our species, the almost obliterated traces of so many nations that have become extinct, they will doubtless take a similar interest in collecting, amidst the darkness which covers the infancy of the globe, the traces of those revolutions which took place anterior to the existence of all nations.
Georges Cuvier (Barón, (), Robert Jameson (1817). “Essay on the Theory of the Earth”, p.3
![If they [enlightened men] take any interest in examining, in the infancy of our species, the almost obliterated traces of so many nations that have become extinct, they will doubtless take a similar interest in](http://cdn.quoteddaily.com/images/georges-cuvier/if-they-enlightened-men-take-any-interest-in-examining-in-the-infancy-of-our-species-the-almost-obliterated-traces-of.jpg)