LINNAEUS TO LAMARCK 29 



when he began to draw evolutionary con- 

 clusions of real philosophical import and value, 

 the Sorbonne at once opened its batteries. On 

 these occasions Buflfon's retreat was prompt 

 and unprotesting. It might be remembered as 

 some mitigation of his cowardice that while 

 the reign of the stake and faggot did not 

 extend into the i8th century and there was no 

 danger of the fate of the fearless Bruno, yet 

 so strong was religious bigotry even in this 

 period that Rousseau was hunted out of 

 France, his books burned by the public execu- 

 tioner, and Diderot went to jail. "Hardly a 

 single man of letters of that time escaped 

 arbitrary imprisonment," says John Morley in 

 his "Rousseau.'' 



This was all very repugnant to the pride and 

 vanity of Buflfon and led him to adopt a style 

 of writing much in vogue a century earlier 

 when the theological hand was heavy as death. 

 This method was to put forward the new idea 

 as a heresy or a mere fancy, explain it, and 

 then proceed with great show of earnestness to 

 demolish it in favor of the orthodox view. This 

 method succeeded admirably until it broke 

 through the thick skulls of religious bigots 

 that the case presented for the "heresy" was 

 more convincing than the pretended reply. 



A fine example of this appears in the fourth 



