SUPPOSED FLUCTUATIONS OF OPINION. 99 



Then follow the quotations upon which M. Geoffrey 

 relies to which I will return presently after which 

 the conclusion runs thus : 



"The dates, however, of the several passages in 

 question are sufficient to explain the differences in 

 their tenor, in a manner worthy of Buffon. Where are 

 the passages in which Buffon affirms the immutability 

 of species ? At the beginning of his work. His first 

 volume on animals * is dated 1753. The two follow- 

 ing are those in which Buffon still shares the views of 

 Linnaeus; they are dated 1755 and 1756. Of what 

 date are those in which Buffon declares for variability ? 

 From 1761 to 1766. And those in which, after having 

 admitted variability and declared in favour of it, he 

 proceeds to limit it ? From 1765 to 1778. 



"The inference is sufficiently simple. Buffon does 

 but correct himself. He does not fluctuate. He goes 

 once for all from one opinion to the other, from what he 

 accepted at starting on the authority of another to what 

 he recognized as true after twenty years of research. 

 If while trying to set himself free from the prevailing 

 notions, he in the first instance went, like all other 

 innovators, somewhat to the opposite extreme, he essays 

 as soon as may be to retrace his steps in some measure, 

 and thenceforward to remain unchanged. 



" Let the reader cast his eye over the general table 

 of contents wherein Buffon, at the end of his ' Natural 

 History,' gives a resume of all of it that he is anxious to 

 preserve. He passes over alike the passages in which 

 he affirms and those in which he unreservedly denies 

 * Tom. iv. 



H 2 



