386 BUFFON 



which has proved serviceable is this : — " Le but de la 

 philosophic n'est pas de connoitre le pourquoi, mais le 

 comment des choses." ^ Some few will find the follow- 

 ing sentence full of meaning: — "Tout sujet est un, 

 et quelque vaste qu'il soit, il peut 6tre renferme 

 dans un seul discours." ^ Even Universal History may 

 be so handled as to leave a simple and powerful impres- 

 sion, if there is a Montesquieu or a Bossuet to handle it. 

 Professor Huxley used to say that the principles of 

 sound Geology were embodied in the words : — " Pour 

 juger de ce qui est arriv^, et meme de ce qui arrivera, 

 nous n'avons qu'a examiner ce qui arrive." ^ 



The reader who wishes to see Buffon at his best may 

 turn to his description of the horse and stag, which are 

 praised by Sainte-Beuve,* or to those of the horse and 

 camel, which are praised by Gibbon.* A. P. de CandoUe 

 (Memoires et souvenirs, p. 83) reports, but not of course 

 from personal knowledge, that BufFon liked to find out 

 which of his descriptions a new acquaintance admired 

 most, and that those pleased him best who hesitated 

 between the ass and the horse. 



ESTIMATE OF BUFFON 



During Buffon's lifetime his merit as a naturalist was 

 hotly debated. It was admitted that he was no botanist ; 



naire, art. Buffon). But the "Diseours k rAeademie Fran9aise," printed in 

 Hist. Nat., Vol. IV, omits the de. Whatever authority may exist for the 

 insertion of the particle, its omission can hardly be wrong. 



^Hist Nat., Vol. V, p. 104. 



' " Diseours a I'Aoad^mie," Hist. Nat., Suppt., Vol. IV, p. 5. 



' TMorie de la Terre, Hist. Nat., Vol. I. 



^Gauseries du Lvndi, Vol. IV. Sainte-Beuve originally added the swan, 

 but afterwards became convinced that "le Gygne tant vant^ pourrait etre du 

 pur Bexon." Buffon's letter to Bexon, Deo. 24, 1779, puts the matter beyond 

 question; he speaks of " votre beau Cygne." 



°"Read (it is no unpleasing task) the incomparable articles of the Horse 

 and the Camel in the Natural History of M. de Buffon,'' Decline and Fail, 

 note to cliap. 50. 



