BUFFON 139 



"Evolution tends to elevate and not to depress the 

 Gospel." 



Buffon was a thinker a true philosopher, with ad- 

 vanced views and the best ideas of the Encyclopaedists 

 (Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot) were realized in his 

 Histoire Naturelle and jfipoques de la Nature. He was 

 undoubtedly the centre of a powerful and energetic group 

 of naturalists which characterized a great part of the 

 eighteenth century. He was the father of the modern 

 evolutionist. 



His great work, Histoire Naturelle, in fifteen volumes, 

 appeared between 1749 and 1767; and his literary style 

 was unapproached by any of his scientific contempo- 

 raries. Mirabeau said of Buffon that he was " le plus 

 grand homme de son siecle et de bien d'autres " ; and 

 Rousseau said that he was " la plus belle plume du 

 siecle." His style was also praised by Diderot, Voltaire, 

 and others. 



Buffon was a handsome man, with courtly and diplo- 

 matic manners, wide culture, and a splendid genius, 

 which he himself called " a supreme capacity of taking 

 pains." His stateliness and polished courtesy, his ready 

 wit and graceful bearing, his erudition and ideas, not 

 without a certain grandeur, raised Buffon on so high a 

 pedestal, that we cannot wonder if France and Europe 

 generally worshipped him. 



He translated Newton's Fluxions, and was familiar 



