BUFFON 389 



realm of nature — animals, plants,, minerals, and tlie 

 theory of the earth ; fifty years of unparalleled industry 

 had been unable to cover such a programme. Buffon's 

 death and the Revolution which immediately followed 

 were heavy blows to the undertaking, and though the 

 publication was resumed in quieter times, the Histoire 

 Naturelle became antiquated long before the end was in 

 sight. 



Cuvier ^ has said that the history of quadrupeds is the 

 most complete, the history of birds the most agreeable, 

 the history of minerals the most defective. In the 

 twentieth century the student of scientific history finds 

 it worth while to read all that Buffon has to say about 

 familiar quadrupeds, the dissertations, and also the 

 Ejpoques de la Nature, which exhibits him as a founder 

 of Geology. 



Bufibn is intellectually the man of his century, the 

 century of Montesquieu and Gibbon. He is enlightened 

 and rational, free from the bonds of theology and 

 traditional philosophy and verbal learning. It was his 

 delight to account for everything. Madame Neckar 

 says that he was ready to account for every word in his 

 own writings down to the smallest particle. Facts he 

 values as the source of ideas (" rassemblons des faits 

 pour nous donner les id^es"^), but he perceived very 

 inadequately how minute and toilsome must be the 

 collection of the facts if false ideas are to be avoided. 



Fontenelle, E^aumur and Bufi"on rank, as popularisers 

 of science, among the civilising influences of the eigh- 

 teenth century ; Voltaire may perhaps be allowed a place 

 among them, not for the merit and originality of his 

 scientific work, but for its effect ; Cuvier and Humboldt 

 continue the tradition. Buffon has of course lost much 



^Biographie UniverseUe. ^ .Vat. Hist., Vol. II, p. 18. 



