June Biiffons Description. 205 



vite vite vite vite vite ! ' When a peasant tells this he 

 always pronounces pousse pousse very slowly, and in 

 a low voice, as if he were telling you a secret that deeply 

 concerned you ; but when he comes to the vite vite vite 

 he breaks into km ier and higher tones, and finishes in 

 a hurried presto. 



The finest and most complete description nf the 

 nightingale's song that I ever met with is in l>uffon. 

 It is remarkably accurate, and full of the closest study, 

 whilst the mastery of language displayed in the literary 

 workmanship is quite inimitable, so that after reading 

 it no other author would venture to attempt any such 

 piece of work with the hope of excelling it in the same 

 way. The most astonishing thing from the critical 

 point of view, in this masterpiece, is that, although 

 Buffon wrote in a language which is remarkably poor 

 in words that express varieties of sound, we never feel 

 this poverty in the least when reading it. The entire 

 passage is too long to quote, but the following extract 

 from it is sufficiently independent to be detached : 



' II commence par un prelude timide, par des tons faibles, 

 presqu'inde'cis, comme s'il voulait essayer son instrument et 

 interesser ceux qui I'e'coutent ; mais ensuite prenant de Passur- 

 ance, il s'anime par degres, il s'echauffe, et bientot il deploie 

 dans leur plenitude toutes les ressources de son incomparable 

 organe ; coups de gosiers eclatants ; batteries vives et legeres ; 

 fusees de chant ou la nettete' est e'gale a la volubilite, murmure 

 interieure et sourd qui n'est point appreciable a 1'oreille, mais 

 tres propre a augmenter Feclat des sons appreciates ; roulades 

 pre'cipitees, brillantes et rapides, articulees avec force et meme 

 avec une durete de bon gout ; accents plaintifs cadences avec 



