144 BIOGRAPHIES OF SCIENTIFIC MEN 



Buffon's memory was razed to the ground. Such was 

 the wanton recklessness of the revolutionists even the 

 dead were not safe in their graves ! The despicable mean- 

 ness of the mob in rifling the grave of " the aristocrat 

 Buffon" was to steal the leaden coffin in which he was 

 buried. With this exception, however, the tomb was 

 restored by admirers of the great man. 



Buffon was a naturalist of the highest order ; inde- 

 fatigable in his work, independent in his ideas, and 

 although rich and the friend of kings, idleness was un- 

 known to him. " He opposed the extreme systematizers, 

 who seemed to think it the end of science, not so much 

 to know about an object, as to be able to make it and 

 fit it into their system," Huxley, writing in 1894, said 

 that "we do not possess, at this moment, a history of 

 even the little group of British mammals up to the level 

 of the work of Buffon and Daubenton, now nearly a 

 century and a half old." Huxley said in appreciation of 

 Buffon : "I am not likely to take a low view of Darwin's 

 position in the history of science, but I am disposed to 

 think that Buffon and Lamarck would run him hard both 

 in genius and fertility. In breadth of view and extent 

 of knowledge these two men were giants, though we are 

 apt to forget their services." 



Saint-Hilaire said of Linnaeus and Buffon : " Linne", 

 un de ces types de la perfection de rintelligence humaine 



