14^ HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



for decision and perseverance. After a while Buflfon 

 was entered at the academy of Angers, it being 

 decided that the boy should follow his father as a 

 magistrate and public man. There his love of 

 study became evident, and his application was con- 

 siderable. One of his associates was a young 

 English nobleman. Lord Kingston, and they be- 

 came great friends, and probably this friendship 

 was caused and fostered by his lordship's German 

 tutor, Hinckman, who was a man of considerable 

 learning. When he was nineteen years of age the 

 three friends started for a tour in Italy. Returning 

 to Angers to resume his studies, Buffon became a 

 little wild, and got into a quarrel with a young 

 Englishman at play. Buffon wounded his an- 

 tagonist and had to leave the town. He went to 

 Paris, but not to waste time ; on the contrary, his 

 former love of figures, and his later studies in 

 mathematics, inspired him to translate Newton's 

 "Fluxions" into French, and also Hale's "Vegetable 

 Statics," which subsequently he presented to the 

 Academy of Sciences. Still keeping up his friend- 

 ship with Lord Kingston, Buffon visited Italy again ; 

 and there is no doubt that Hinckman instilled the 

 love of nature into the young man's mind. They 

 were all at Rome in 1732, when Buffon heard of the 

 death of his mother, who was greatly mourned by 

 him. He was then twenty-five years of age, and 

 became very wealthy, as he was his mother's heir. 

 Journeying in Switzerland he began to know other 

 English people of distinction. All these friend- 



