148 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



the Jardin du Roi and the Royal Museum. Anxious 

 to continue his studies about trees, he prevailed on 

 the king to let him experiment on a grand scale in 

 one of the royal forests. But this was only a 

 part of his work, for he commenced that great 

 book on natural history which was always after to 

 be associated with his name. It was not to be a 

 simple book on animals, but on the history of the 

 earth as well ; and, in fact, he intended it to be an 

 encyclopaedia of all natural knowledge except 

 mathematics and figures. It was a great concep- 

 tion and it was carried out year after year during 

 success, domestic happiness and trouble. The per- 

 severanee and patience of the man were wonderful ; 

 and fortunately he had the means of collecting 

 what was required, of buying books and of 

 having secretaries to do the very troublesome and 

 mechanical part of writing. He was short-sighted 

 and wrote badly. It was not vanity, nor the desire 

 of being great, that made Bufifon work ; certainly 

 it was not amusement. But he was happy in his 

 work, and he stated that genius is a gift which 

 comes not from man ; and the great man is an in- 

 strument in the Divine hand ; he has a mission 

 which may be for light or to ruin, and neither the 

 environment of pleasure or glory or the troubles of 

 fortune, ill-health, or misery should deter him from 

 his ends. Genius, Bufifon also termed, a very great 

 aptitude for patience. 



Daubenton assisted Bufifon in his first three 

 volumes of natural history, and they came out in 



