ELOGE ON BTJFF04 V X I V K I 43 



seduced* and abused by these illusions, JjaY&g; devoted^ 

 to this matter a lost work, running astray in 

 tesimal metaphysics, without being able to confine him- 

 self to the exactitude of these sciences, or to impart to 

 them the charms of his imagination. But Fontenelle 

 wished to make a book, Buffon merely to make known 

 that of Newton. The kind of reputation for which he 

 seemed destined, not being to enrich the sciences by 

 discoveries, but to render them attractive by his elo- . 

 quence ; I regret that I am unable to speak here, in 

 any detail, respecting the works of his youth, and to 

 show by what labours he amassed the profuse wealth 

 he afterwards showed in his writings. Not that I think 

 his eloge incomplete without these details, which per- 

 haps would have been sufficient of themselves to render 

 any other name famous, but which will scarcely be 

 missed in the life of Buffon. But however useless as 

 regards his reputation, they are by no means so in 

 reference to general instruction ; and if it be only by 

 following the example of celebrated men we can hope 

 to come up to them, or even surpass them (a necessary 

 ambition to enable us to attain to what is great) ; it is 

 not to be doubted, that the only torch which can en- 

 lighten and sustain so noble an emulation, is the atten- 

 tive observation of the progress by which they reached 

 an elevation which separates them from other men. 

 Fortunate are those who can thus follow, and meditate 

 on all the steps of Buffon's progress, and who, finding 

 in his attempts important lessons for themselves, show 



