50 ELOGE ON BUFF05. 



time and space removes even from our conjectures. 

 His work, finished on the plan in which it was con- 

 ceived, would have been the history of the world and 

 the plan of creation ; and it would not have been his 

 fault, if human curiosity, so vague in its desires, had 

 not been satisfied. 



" But if this undertaking was, as cannot be doubted, 

 the greatest which even Buffon could conceive ; on the 

 other hand, the means he had to execute it were such 

 that no past time could have been more favourable to 

 success ; and never could one who exerted himself to 

 extend the empire of human knowledge enjoy an op- 

 portunity of using such vast and multiplied resources. 

 The world was then at peace, and this allowed obser- 

 vers, however distantly separated, to carry on their 

 labours conjointly ; or the wars that did arise, of little 

 importance in themselves, and interesting only to kings, 

 did not prevent nations from favouring, by common 

 consent, useful and learned investigations, interesting 

 to the whole human race. The commerce of knowledge 

 was always free ; and protected sometimes by the ene- 

 mies of all commerce and of all relation between states. 

 Did not an instance occur, of cases addressed to Buffon, 

 remaining untouched in a vessel plundered by pirates, 

 and, in the disorder of general pillage, the seal of phi- 

 losophy being held sacred even by those who profess to 

 have a respect for nothing ? Universal oppression left 

 no other mode of employing their understandings free 

 to men, save the study of the arts and sciences; no 



