76 MEMOIRS OF 



erudition. But each of them traced a different path for 

 himself, according to the peculiar bent of his genius. Lin- 

 naeus seized on the distinguishing characters of beings, with 

 the most remarkable tact ; Buffbn, at one glance, embraced 

 the most distant affinities: Linnaeus, exact and precise, creat- 

 ed a language on purpose to express his ideas clearly, and 

 at the same time concisely : Buffon, abundant and fer- 

 tile in expression, used his words to develope the extent 

 of his conceptions. No one ever exceeded Linnaeus in im- 

 pressing every one with the beauties of detail with which 

 the Creator has profusely enriched every thing to which he 

 has given life. No one better than Buffon ever painted 

 the majesty of creation, and the imposing grandeur of 

 the laws to which she is subjected. The former, fright- 

 ened at the chaos or careless state in which his prede- 

 cessors had left the history of nature, contrived by simple 

 methods, and short and clear definitions, to establish or- 

 der in this immense labyrinth, and render a knowledge of 

 individual beings easy of attainment : the latter, disgusted 

 at the dryness of antecedent writers, who, for the most part 

 were contented with giving exact descriptions, knew how 

 to interest us for these objects by the magic of his harmo- 

 nious and poetical language. Sometimes the student, fa- 

 tigued by the perusal of Linnaeus, reposed himself with 

 Buffon ; but always, \vhen deliciously excited by his en- 

 chanting descriptions, he returned to Linnaeus in order to 

 class this beautiful imagery, fearing, that without such aid 

 he might only preserve a confused recollection of its subject ; 

 and doubtless, it is not the least of the merits of these two 

 authors, thus incessantly to inspire a wish to return to each 

 other, although this alternation seems to prove, and in fact 

 does prove, that, in each, something is wanting. As unfor- 

 tunately is but too often the case, the imitators of Linnaeus 

 and Buffon have precisely adopted the defects of each of 

 their masters ; and that which was in them but a slight 

 shade in a magnificent picture, is become the principal cha- 

 racter in the productions of many of their respective disci- 

 ples. Some have only copied the dry and neological phra- 

 ses of Linnaeus, without recollecting that he himself only 

 looked upon his system as the scaffolding of an edifice of 

 much greater importance, and that in the special histories 

 which his numerous labours have permitted him to write, 



