MEMOIE OF BUFFON. 29 



tended the funeral: above 20,000 people were assembled 

 to see it pass: a monument was erected to his memory ; 

 and though there is much to blame in the private 

 character of Buffon, his name as a naturalist will 

 long continue to be remembered. 

 ~1Buffon left one son who inherited considerable abi- 

 lities, and appears to have been fondly attached to his 

 parent. He entered the army, and rose to the rank 

 of major in the regiment of Angoumois. He was des- 

 tined, however, to live in a more unsettled period, and 

 during the Revolution was condemned to death, and 

 perished on the scaffold. The abilities of the father 

 were no safeguard for the son ; nor was the utility 

 of his own works, or his kindness during life to his 

 retainers, a greater protection afterwards to his own 

 remains, against the ruthless hands of popular fury. 

 The hatred to the noblesse and aristocracy of France 

 was borne by so violent a tide, that the remains of 

 this illustrious naturalist were torn up and left un- 

 buried, the leaden coffin carried off, his monument 

 razed to the ground, and this, by part of the same 

 20,000 spectators who had formerly attended the 

 mournful procession to the grave !* 



* A citizen who loved the sciences, and who, indignant at the 

 profanation of genius, went to Paris to complain of it, and proposed 

 to the Committee of Public Instruction to place Buffon in the 

 Pantheon. This attempt, however, was unavailing, and the Com- 

 mittee were unanimously of opinion, that the place would be 

 profaned by the presence of a man who was connected, Jil\e 



