and not then of old age, with plenty of 

 flesh on his bones. 



He was, indeed, too large a man not to 

 have enemies, and, of course, Voltaire was 

 one. The colossal dyspeptic, when Buffon 

 and his ** Natural History " were mentioned 

 in his presence, snarled : " Pas si natu- 

 relle!" and thus sounded the key-note of 

 ill-tempered criticism. The reconciliation 

 between the two great writers suggests 

 what may be called the " scratch my back 

 and I '11 scratch yours " method now so 

 popular with schoolmen in science. Buf- 

 fon sent Voltaire a fine copy of ** L'His- 

 toire Naturelle," and Voltaire wrote a note 

 of acceptance in which he hinted that the 

 donor was a second Archimedes ; Buffon 

 replied that there never would be a Voltaire 

 n, and then both were as happy as school- 

 boys with new tops. They shook hands 

 across the chasm of self-admiration. 



The nine volumes of " L'Histoire Natu- 

 relle" devoted to birds were issued 

 during 1770-83. In their preparation 

 Buffon was assisted first by Gueneau de 

 Montbeliard, and then by the Abbe 

 120 



