364 BUFFON 



Billarderie d'Angiviller, who by his own confession had 

 only " les connaissances superficielles d'un homme du 

 monde," got the promise of the succession. In a letter 

 to the disappointed father, he described himself as " un 

 homme d'etat sup^rieur a celui des S9avans." The 

 Comte not only procured the next appointment, but 

 also the survivorship for his brother. It will save 

 reference to another page if we briefly relate in this 

 place all that remains to be said about the history of 

 the Jardin. Buffon died in 1788, and Billarderie 

 d'Angiviller became intendant. He knew nothing 

 about the work and left everything to his subordinates. 

 The expenses soon exceeded any sum which the treasury, 

 loaded with debt, could bear. D'Angiviller resigned,^ 

 and in 1792 Bernardin de St. Pierre, the author oi Paul 

 et Virginie, was appointed in his place. Strange to 

 say, he proved himself a good administrator, and did all 

 that could be done at a time when the government of 

 France was disorganised. It was he who founded the 

 menagerie at the Jardin by removing thither six animals 

 which had been kept in the park of Versailles, adding 

 such others as happened to be in the market ; it was 

 he, too, who made a beginning with the library of the 

 Museum. But in a short time the post of intendant 

 was suppressed, and in 1793 the Jardin was completely 

 reconstituted, in the agony, be it observed, of the Terror 

 and the revolutionary war. Twelve new professorships 

 were founded, with the condition that the lectures should 

 be free. Daubenton, A. de Jussieu, Geoflfroy St. Hilaire, 

 Faujas-Saint-Fond, and Lamarck were on the first staff. 

 This reconstruction brings us within sight of the time 



^ D'Angiviller turns up again in the Diary of Crabb Robinson. In 1807 his 

 tall person, very dignified manners, rank, and advanced age combined to 

 render him an object of universal interest at Altona. 



