*> ELOGE ON BUFFON". 



been said on this subject, and what enlightened men 

 still allege, that there can be nothing truly estimable 

 in a work on the sciences but what is useful to the 

 learned ; that this utility consists in discovering new 

 truth ; or at least in presenting, in a new order, and 

 such as is fitted to facilitate their study, truths already 

 known ; that the didactic style, that is to say, the style 

 peculiar to the sciences, is from its nature the simplest 

 %id humblest of all, never having any other object but 

 to offer a clear sense to the mind, nor any greater 

 merit than not to be remarked ; that, in such cases, all 

 emphasis in expression only annoys a reader who is in 

 search of truth, and by giving false and confused ideas 

 to such individuals as are less correctly instructed, in- 

 jures the progress of the sciences ; that far from being 

 able to derive from oratorical ornament and parade of 

 language, any real utility, the greater part of them owe 

 their existence to the invention of certain signs, which 

 supply entire phrases, and are brought to perfection 

 only in proportion as they have learned to dispense 

 with words ; that eloquence, the enemy of accuracy, in- 

 tended to move or to seduce, accustomed to hurry the 

 passions impetuously forward, and even in its calmest 

 moments, less occupied with truth than with verisimili- 

 tudes, is a stranger to every work whose object is not 

 to persuade but to convince ; that philosophy instructs 

 but does not harangue ! 



But what are we to infer from all this ? Is it meant 

 to lay an interdict on all that can make instruction 



