BUFFON. 153 



was most indignant when he knew who the man 

 was — an ignoramus and court favourite, a perfectly- 

 incompetent man. It is said that Louis XV. on 

 this occasion, to compensate Buffon for his annoy- 

 ance, raised the Montbard property to the holding 

 of a count. Certainly he ordered the sculptor, 

 Pajon, to erect a full-sized statue of Buffon in the 

 garden during his absence, and to put the inflated 

 inscription on it, " His genius equals the majesty of 

 nature." Buffon resented this, and he wrote to the 

 President de Ruffey : " I thank you for the part 

 you have taken in procuring this statue, which I 

 neither required nor solicited, and which would 

 have done me greater honour if it had been erected 

 after my death. I have always thought that a wise 

 man should rather fear envy then value glory ; all 

 this has been done without consulting me." 



Some years afterwards an architect, who was 

 employed in embellishing some of the buildings in 

 the Jardin du Roi, wished to compliment Buffon, 

 but this simple-minded, scientific man stated, " I 

 cannot agree to any expenditure which will con- 

 tribute to my personal glory, and I had nothing to 

 do with the statue they erected to me." In writing 

 to Madame Necker, he showed how exactly he 

 understood the French court, and appreciated its 

 praises : " I passed the whole of yesterday and the 

 day before in making observations and notes on a 

 most important project presented to the king, 

 relating to the planting of 100,000 fir trees for the 

 masts of the navy. I would not grudge the time if 



