386 BUFFON 



which has proved serviceable is this : — " Le but de la 

 philosophic n'est pas de connoitre le pourquoi, mais le 

 comment des choses." ^ Some few will find the follow- 

 ing sentence full of meaning : — " Tout sujet est un, 

 et quelque vaste qu'il soit, il peut etre renferme 

 dans un seul discours." ^ Even Universal History may- 

 be so handled as to leave a simple and powerful impres- 

 sion, if there is a Montesquieu or a Bossuet to handle it. 

 Professor Huxley used to say that the principles of 

 sound Geology were embodied in the words : — " Pour 

 juger de ce qui est arrive, et meme de ce qui arrivera, 

 nous n'avons qu'a examiner ce qui arrive." ^ 



The reader who wishes to see BufFon at his best may 

 turn to his description of the horse and stag, which are 

 praised by Sainte-Beuve,* or to those of the horse and 

 camel, which are praised by Gibbon.^ A. P. de Candolle 

 (Memoires et souvenirs, p. 83) reports, but not of course 

 from personal knowledge, that BufFon liked to find out 

 which of his descriptions a new acquaintance admired 

 most, and that those pleased him best who hesitated 

 between the ass and the horse. 



ESTIMATE OF BUFFON 

 During Bufibn's lifetime his merit as a naturalist was 

 hotly debated. It was admitted that he was no botanist ; 



nairey art. Buffon). But the " Discours a TAcad^^mie Franfaise," printed in 

 Hist. Nat., Vol. IV, omits the de. Whatever authority may exist for the 

 insertion of the particle, its omission can hardly be wrong. 

 ^ Hist Nat., Vol. V, p. 104. 



2 " Discours a lAcademie," Hist. Nat., Suppt., Vol. IV, p. 5. 



3 THorie de la Terre, Hist. Nat., Vol. I. 



* Gauseries du Lvndi, Vol. IV. Sainte-Beuve originally added the swan, 

 but afterwards became convinced that "le Gygne tant vante pourrait etre du 

 pur Bexon." Buffon's letter to Bexon, Dec. 24, 1779, puts the matter beyond 

 question; he speaks of ** votre beau Cygne." 



^'•Read (it is no unpleasing task) the incomparable articles of the Horse 

 and the Camel in the Natural History of M. de Buffon," Decline and Fall, 

 note to chap. 50. 



