48 ELOGE OK BUFFOF. 



and buried in the mass of compilations and narratives 

 which multiplied still more ; the difficulty of collecting 

 them continually increased along with the distaste which 

 always accompanies work of this kind ; for, as may 

 have been noticed in these writings, whatever may be 

 the style, the curiosity natural to man for all that treats 

 of remote objects, often holds the place of that interest 

 which art alone can impart to other works ; and it was 

 easy, therefore, for people to persuade themselves, that 

 in order to be an observer, naturalist, author, and at 

 the same time secure readers, nothing was henceforth 

 necessary but to run and to write. No one went away, 

 for however short a distance, from his birth-place, 

 without thinking that he was called upon to publish at 

 least letters to a friend ; and, even such as undertook 

 more important tasks, abused the indulgence of the 

 public, anxious as they were for instruction, by de- 

 scribing, in detail, the most trifling events of their pro- 

 gress, life, conversations, and sometimes even their love 

 intrigues. All this increased the labour of the savant ; 

 who, reading not so much for himself as for others, and 

 fearing to overlook some circumstance worthy of being 

 noted, saw himself condemned to follow throughout a 

 narrative encumbered with so much useless matter. 



The existing knowledge respecting Natural History, 

 when Buffon took up his pen, was scattered in the man- 

 ner described, throughout a multitude of books, or 

 rather, it may be said, in every book, since there is 

 scarcely any one which does not owe some tribute to 



