150 Notice of British Naturalists. 



The profits of it he had dedicated to a Welsh charity school in 

 London, of which he was the patron ; but the expense of the 

 undertaking was so great, and the sale comparatively so limited, 

 that he lost considerably by the work. As the editions were mul- 

 tiplied he added to it, and improved it ; and it was afterwards pub- 

 lished in octavo with profit. The first one hundred pounds 

 that he realized from it, he presented to the school. Two years 

 after this, his wife, to whom he appears to have been much at- 

 tached, and of whom he speaks in the warmest terms of affection, 

 died ; leaving him two young children ; and to relieve his mind 

 from the grief natural to such an event, he paid a visit to the 

 continent. 



We may imagine with what pleasure Pennant, with a mind 

 constituted as his was, found himself surrounded by the great 

 naturalists and literati of his day. Among them he visited, and 

 became intimate with Buffbn, Voltaire, Baron Haller, the two 

 Gesners, and Dr. Pallas. The intimacy thus formed, with Pallas, 

 continued through hfe ; their correspondence was frequent ; and 

 Pennant tells us that to this gentleman he owed the first hint of his 

 Synopis of British quadrupeds. But Buffon was then the most 

 noted naturalist in that part of the continent ; and naturally there- 

 fore, the person in whom Pennant felt the greatest personal interest. 

 He spent a week with him at his country residence. Buffon was 

 born in 1707, of a noble family, and at an early age inherited a 

 large propertj^ He dedicated his life to the pursuit of science. 

 In 1749 he began to publish his " Histoire natarelle^''^ and comple- 

 ted it in 1767. He died about 1780. His talents were original, 

 and of high order ,• and by the beauty and eloquence of his style, 

 the earnestness with which he insisted upon the advantages of this 

 study ; and the magnificence of his published works, he at- 

 tracted great attention to the science. As a practical naturalist, 

 he was, however, exceedingly deficient. He depended in a great 

 measure upon the information afforded by others ; and like Gold- 

 smith, in a somewhat similar undertaking, his brilliant imagina- 

 tion worked this up into an interesting and most popular book. 

 He pursued no regular system, although he had his own peculiar 

 views. Whether he already saw the danger which was likely to 

 arise from too servile an adherence to Linnasus ; or whether it 

 was ©wing to a want of sufficient knowledge of scientific detail ; 

 and an affected independence of mind, he merely grouped his 



