MEMOIR OF BUFFON. 



IT is a remarkable circumstance, that among the 

 many naturalists whose names at this period are re- 

 membered from the high reputation of their works, 

 comparatively few, had their minds early directed by 

 tueir parents or guardians to the study of this science, 

 and by many, it was not commenced before a somevhat 

 advanced age. The illustrious naturalist whom we 

 have chosen for the subject of the present memoir, is 

 an instance among many others ; and although he wag 

 fortunate in procuring an education of the most liberal 

 kind, which embraced in its range polite literature and 

 the sciences, and was extended by means of foreign 

 travel and the companionship of polished minds, he 

 had passed his thirtieth year before designing the plan 

 of his extensive works on nature, and the first branches 

 of the animal kingdom. 



George Louis le Clerc Buffon was born at Mont- 

 bard* in Burgundy, in September 1707, and his father, 



* Buffon's house seemed the large hahitation of a tradesman 

 rather than the residence of a man of rank. It is in the Higb 



