MEMOIR OF BUFFON, 



The illustrious naturalist whom we have chosen for the subject of the 

 present memoir, is an instance among many others ; and although he 

 was fortunate in procuring an education of the most liberal kind, 

 which embraced in its range polite literature and the sciences, and was 

 extended by means of foreign travel and the companionship of po- 

 lished minds, he had passed his thirtieth year before designing the 

 plan of his extensive works on nature, and the first branches of the 

 animal kingdom. 



George Louis le Clerc Buffon, was born at Montbard * in Bur- 

 gundy, in September 1 707, and his father, Benjamin le Clerc BufFon, 

 being a counsellor of Parliament in the district, naturally wished that 

 his son should study his own profession, and, if possible, assist and 

 succeed him in the discharge of its duties. There are a few existing 

 records of the early life of BufFon ; and except that he pursued the 

 studies which he undertook, with great ardour and perseverance, we 

 know little of his youthful habits and propensities. 



His first public tuition was at the Jesuit's College of Dijon, where 

 he was placed to study the profession of the law ; but his dislike for 

 this employment, and the zeal with which he followed the more ab- 

 struse sciences, prevented his father from insisting upon a continuation 

 of his legal studies, and gradually permitted him to pursue those of 

 own selecting. Astronomy and mathematics, were his early passion ; 

 and the young Le Clerc was seldom without a copy of Euclid in his 

 pocket, and was often observed to retire from his companions at play, 

 and to attempt, in some solitary corner, the solution of any problem 

 with which he had been perplexed. 



* BuflFon's house seemed the large habitation of a tradesman rather than the resi- 

 dence of a man of rank. It is in the High Street, and the court is behind. You 

 ascend a staircase to go into the garden, which is raised on the ruins of the an- 

 cient mansion of which the walls make the terraces. On the top there still re- 

 mains an octagon tower, where Buffon made his observations on the reverberations 

 of air. The elevation of this tower is 140 feet above the level of the little river 

 Braine, which crosses the town. This singular and picturesque garden is well 

 worthy the notice of the curious ; and the numerous foreign trees which the illus- 

 trious proprietor had collected, form agreeable arbours. — Millin's Travels. 



