MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON. 191 



brief administration, to rescue the Jardin des Piantes 

 from the state of disorder into which it had been allow- 

 ed to fall by the carelessness of former curators, hitherto 

 born to the office of superintendents of this establish- 

 ment, having intrusted him with this duty, Buffon's 

 choice became fixed for ever on Natural History, and 

 he saw opening before him that extensive career which 

 he ran with such wide-spread reputation. 



From the very first he formed an estimate of the 

 whole extent of it. He perceived at one glance what 

 was requisite to be done, what he had it in his power 

 to do, and what he required from the assistance of 

 others. 



Overloaded, from its birth, by the indigested erudi- 

 tion of the Aldrovands, Gesners, and Johnstons, natural 

 history appeared, so to speak, mutilated by the scissors 

 of nomenclators the Rays, Kleins, and even Linnaeus 

 himself, presented us with nothing but naked catalogues, 

 written in a barbarous language, and which, with their 

 apparent precision, and the care their authors seemed 

 to have taken to include in them nothing but what could 

 at any time be verified by observation, contained never- 

 theless a multitude of errors, both in the details, in the 

 distinctive characters, and in the systematical arrange- 

 ments. 



To restore life and motion to this cold and inanimate 

 body ; to paint Nature as she really is, always young 

 and always in action ; to sketch with a comprehensive 

 pencil the admirable agreement of all her parts, the laws 



