BUFFON 367 



calomnie retomber sur elle-mlme." There were criticisms 

 which were not calumnies, but his pride treated all alike 

 with silence. 



No corrected editions of the Histoire Naturelle were 

 issued, though many new impressions were called for. 

 BuflFon was unwilling to impair the value of early copies, 

 perhaps also unwilling to let it appear what extensive 

 correction was needed. He now and then restated with 

 fuller knowledge and greater care doctrines which he had 

 outgrown, or put forth disquisitions which contradicted 

 his early opinions. These revised and improved chapters 

 were issued as Supplements. 



BUFFON AND THE SORBONNE 



The fourth volume of the Histoire Naturelle contains 

 a curious correspondence, dated 1751, between Buffon 

 and the doctors of the Sorbonne. The faculty of theology 

 had marked fourteen passages as reprehensible, but 

 Buffon, having heard of their proceedings, made haste 

 to declare his submission. Some of the passages seem 

 innocent enough to the non-professional reader, such as 

 his prediction that the present continents will in time 

 be submerged, and that new continents will rise from 

 beneath the sea ; or that the sun will probably cool 

 down and cease to shine. Again, the Sorbonne need 

 not have shuddered to hear that a comet striking the 

 sun may have detached planets, which continued to 

 revolve in the same direction as the sun, or that the 

 earth was once liquid by reason of intense heat. Most 

 of the propositions relate to abstract points of philosophy, 

 and might well have been allowed to pass, whether theo- 

 logically sound or not. 



The college of the Sorbonne, founded in 1257, became 

 affiliated to the university of Paris, whose theological 



