MEMOIR OF BUFFOff. 31 



and the very large proportion of time which was de- 

 voted to study, Buffon appeared to little advantage 

 in company. His conversation did not reach beyond 

 mediocrity, 'and the time at table was spent in light 

 talk, exceeding even the licensed freedoms of the 

 French. The power of communicating information 

 was either wanting, or reserved for his particular 

 friends in private, and he considered that a discussion 

 upon the Sciences should be confined to books alone. 

 These opinions may have influenced his wish for com- 

 parative privacy, and it is certain that he did not mingle 

 with his contemporaries in literary and scientific fame. 

 Vanity has been generally allowed to be the great, 

 est failing in the mind of Buffon, and the pains 

 which he took to work up his writings, and his severe 

 study, have perhaps been too often invidiously re- 

 ferred " to the consideration of what after generations 

 would think regarding him." He delighted in read- 

 ing aloud his own works to his visitors, and chiefly 

 those which he considered his finest pieces. Parts 

 of the Natural History of Man, the description of 

 the Deserts of Arabia in the History of the Camel, 

 that of the Swan, &c.,* were his favourites. It is but 

 justice to say, however, that a more laudable induce- 

 ment to recite them, than the mere love of hearing them 

 praised, has been assigned by some of his biographers. 



* Buffon read the last article to Prince Henry of Prussia, when 

 he visited him at Montbard ; and, as a mark of his delight, the 

 Prince sent Buffon a service of porcelain, on which swans were 

 represented in every attitude Brewst. Ettcy clop. Art. Euffcn. 



C 



