Cuvier and History

"The Ancient History of the Earth, the ultimate goalwhich all this research is leading, is in itself one of the most fascinating subjects on which the attention of enlightened persons can be fixed. If they take an interest in following, in the infancy of our own species, the almost erased tracks of so many extinct nations, tey will doubtless find it also in gathering, in the darkness of earth's infancy, the traces of revolutions previous to the existence of every nation"

Georges Cuvier (from Georges Cuvier, Fossil Bones, and Geological Catastrophes: New Translations and Interpretations of the Primary Texts translated by Martin J. S. Rudwick) as quoted on the last page in When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time. by Michael J. Benton (Thames & Hudson, 2003)

Cuvier is clearly discussing natural history, but could not this same statement be made for human history? I think in this context it is possibly a most elegant justification and apology for the study of history for its own sake.