368 BUFFON 



faculty it long controlled. The theological censorship 

 of books was entrusted to it by the crown, for the papal 

 Index was never recognised in France. Pascal's Lettres 

 Provinciales struck a heavy blow at the prestige of the 

 Sorbonne ; all Paris laughed at the faculty which found 

 it " bien plus aisd de trouver des moines que des raisons." 

 In Buffon's day the weight of the Sorbonne had still 

 further declined. Marmontel in 1767 was able to defy 

 with impunity its censure of the tolerant views which 

 he had put forth in Belisaire. But an author who was 

 not only in the king's service (this consideration muzzled 

 neither Marmontel nor Voltaire), but pledged to the 

 production of a long series of costly volumes, could not 

 prudently quarrel with the Sorbonne, which might get 

 the license for printing revoked. 



Buffon declared that his hypotheses about the forma- 

 tion of planets were pure philosophical suppositions, that 

 he had no intention of contradicting Scripture, and that 

 some of the suspected passages were capable of a harm- 

 less meaning. He undertook to publish his recantation 

 at the first opportunity, and was spared all further pro- 

 ceedings. The passages censured were never cancelled. 

 Intolerance breeds insincerity, and Bufibn thought it 

 fair to treat the theological tribunals as a man treats the 

 brambles in which he has become entangled, gently 

 disengaging himself to avoid getting torn. " Buffon 

 sort d'ici," said the President De Brosses; "il m'a 

 donn^ la clef de son quatrieme volume, sur la maniere 

 dont doivent etre entendues les choses dites pour la 

 Sorbonne." In a letter of 1779 Buffon speaks of the 

 foolish explanation which he had been forced to sign 

 nearly thirty years before. The time was then close at 

 hand when the clergy in their turn were to endure a 

 rigorous and unjust persecution. 



