204 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. FT. ill. 



young Linnaeus, with an allowance of eight pounds a year 

 from his father, was a struggling student at the University 

 of Upsala, putting folded paper into the soles of his old 

 shoes to keep out the damp and cold. 



Buffon's Work on Natural History: he tracas the 

 Distribution of Animals. Buffon's private life fs not 

 interesting. He was a vain man, and not a moral one ; but 

 he had great talents, and remarkable perseverance and 

 industry. In 1739 he was appointed Superintendent of the 

 Royal Garden and Cabinet at Paris, a position which he 

 held till his death. His great work, of which we must now 

 speak, was his * NaturaJJrJisto*^' which occupied him during 

 | the greater part^oflilsTife. It is one comprehensive history 

 of the living world, containing descriptions of all the animals 

 then known, their structure, their distribution, their habits, 

 and their instincts, and, mingled with these, many curious 

 theories about the world and its inhabitants. 



The anatomical part of this work was clone by a physician 

 named Daubenton, who came from Buffon's own village, and 

 was appointed keeper of the cabinet of natural history 

 through his influence. Buffon was very fortunate in having 

 the help of this man, for having weak sight himself, and 

 being more fond of general theories than of minute details, 

 this part of his work would have been very poor if it had 

 not been for Daubenton's careful and conscientious dis- 

 sections and descriptions. The rest of the work was written 

 chiefly by Buffon himself, who bestowed upon it immense 

 pains and labour. He was a very pleasing writer, and did a 

 great deal for natural history by making it popular. His 

 books were more like romances than works of science, but 

 he collected in them a great deal of very useful information, 

 and put it in a shape which every one could read with 

 pleasure, and in this way led people to think, and to wish to 



