42 ELOGE ON BUFFON. 



became probable, ana from that time admiration neld 

 all in subjection ; his name alone was a sufficient de- 

 monstration ; every thing seemed proved by the words, 

 He has said it f 



It was, if I am not deceived, in these circumstances, 

 when this kind of deviation, which Newton at first in- 

 spired us with was converted into enthusiasm, that 

 Buffon translated the Treatise on Fluxions. And here 

 I cannot avoid making a reflection, which has often 

 occurred to me when reading his other works ; and 

 which, according to the idea I have retained of them, 

 does not at the present time appear to me far from the 

 truth. In these somewhat severe studies, by which, 

 unquestionably, the first fire of ardent genius should 

 have been tamed, may it not have happened that the 

 form in which these new calculations were then pre- 

 sented, offering to his mind ideas of infinity in every 

 order, may have easily seduced his imagination, for 

 which, afterwards, a world scarcely afforded sufficient 

 materials for description * t and which, even although 

 sobered by age, and corrected by observation, too often 

 still overleaped the bounds of truth and even of possi- 

 bility ? If other more solid reasons contributed, as we 

 must suppose, to fix his attention on this branch of 

 mathematics, we may imagine that these deceptive, but, 

 at the same time, new and grand images, flattered his 

 mind and decided his choice; the more especially as 

 another individual, in the same age, was attracting 

 admiration by the brilliancy and graces of his mind, 



