B U F V O N, 



ffvtral pcrfons of rank and emineBce ; aaJ particularly with 

 prince lluirv of Prufiia, and with the late einprc''s of RulTia, 

 who ably criticlfcd fome of his opinions, and favoured with 

 great yc'al ii> her dominions his refearchcs in natural hillory. 

 Of his literary vanity he Rave evidence even to^vards the clofe 

 of life ; allej;i;ig that he feared not death, and that the hope 

 cfimmortalleirown was the moll powerful of death-bed con- 

 folations. He took, great pains in forming the ilyle of his 

 wiitinijs ; and as compolition was to him a diffieult tan<, lie 

 repeatedly rcvifcd his works Wore he pubhihcd them. Such 

 was liis attention to (lyle, that he could nut bear the Itaft. 

 deviation from accuracy and propriety in the nfe of language. 

 " The llylc," faid he, " is the man ; our poets have no 

 ftvle ; they are coerced by the rules of metre, which makes 

 flavcs of tiiem." To this circumllance it was owing that 

 he abandoned poetry which he attempted in his youth, and 

 reflriaed himfelf to profe. " Two things," fays he, " form 

 llylc, invention and expreffion. Invention dependson patience; 

 contemplate your fubjcft long ; it will gradually unroll and an- 



fold till a fort of clcftric fpark convulies for a moment the 



brain, and fprt ads down to the very heart a glow of irritation. 

 Then arc come the luxuries of genius, the true hours for 

 produAion and compolition — hours fo delightful, that I have 

 fpcnt 12 and 14 fucceflively at my writing-deflc, and ftill 

 been in a ftatc of pltafure. It is for this gratification, yet 

 more than for glory, that I have toiled. Glory comes if it 

 can, and moltly does come. This pleafure is greater if you 

 confult no books ; I have never confulted authors, till I had 

 nothing left to fay of my own." Such was his regard to 

 fame, that he dcftroyed every paper which he thought ufelefs 

 or unfinifhed ; and thus prefervcd his reputation from being 

 roaflacrcd by pofthumous publications. 



Of the free fentiments which he had imbibed with regard 

 to religion, his works afford ample evidence. They fuf- 

 ficiently indicate his attachment to the fyftemof materialifm. 

 " Religion," faid he to one who was reading to him verfes 

 on the immortality of the foul, " would be a noble prefent, 

 if all that were true." Notwithilanding the licentioufnefs 

 of his religious opinions, as well as of his moral conduft, he 

 coijformed to the external rituals of religion, adding, as fome 

 will fay, hypocrify to his impiety ; when he was at Montbard, 

 he received the annual communion in his feignorial chapel, 

 attended high mafs every Sunday, and dillributed a louis 

 weekly among different defcriptions of pious beggars. 

 " There mud," he faid, " be a religion for the multitude ; 

 and we fhould avoid giving offence." " I have always," he 

 added, in converfation with a friend, " named the Creator ; 

 but it is only putting, mentally, in its place, the energy of 

 nature, which refults from the two great laws of attraftion 

 and impulfe. When the Sorbonne plagued me, I gave all 

 the fatisfadion which they folicitcd ; it was a form which I 

 defpifed, but men are filly enough to be fo fatisfied. For the 

 fame reafon, when I fall dangeroufly ill, I fliall not hefitate 

 to fend for the facraments. This is due to the public reli- 

 gion. Thofe who aft otherwife are madmen." Thus, as 

 he boafts, he avoided (liaring the mifchievous attacks which 

 Voltaire, Diderot, Helvetius, and others had made upon 

 religion, whilft, by the avowal of fuch licentious fentiments 

 in converfation, and by the opinions circulated in his writings, 

 he was perpetually fapping its foundations, and counterafting 

 every obligation of truth and integrity. But let us divert 

 our attention from the principles and charafter of Buffon, 

 which have been fufRciently dereloped, and which no refleft- 

 ing perfon can contemplate without difguft, to his works. 

 In this view of him he appears with much greater advantage. 

 His firft publication was a tranflation from the Englilh of 

 " Hales's Vegetable Statics," in 1735 ; which was followed 



in 1740 by a tranflation from the Latin of " Newton's 

 Fluxions." His «' Theory of the Earth" was firft pub- 

 lifhed in 1/44, which was included in his moft ccmprthen- 

 five celebrated work entitled " Natural Hiftory, general and 

 particular," which commenced in 1749, and at its comple- 

 tion in 1767 extended to 15 vols. 410. or 31 vols. i:mo. 

 Supplements were afterwards added, amounting to ft;veral 

 more volumes. In the anatomical part the author was ai jed 

 bv M. d'Aubenton ; but in all the other parts Buffon him- 

 felf difplays his learning, genius, and eloquence, and he alfo 

 indulges his fancy, in exploring and delineating the whole 

 economy of nature. He begins with a theory of the earth, 

 which, as well as the other planets, he fiippofes to have been 

 originallv a mafs of liquefied matter, dafhed out of the body 

 of the ftin by tlie viokiit illapfe of a comet. He then covers 

 it with ocean, from which he forms ftrata by dcpofition, and 

 mountains by the flux and reflux of the tide. Subterraneous 

 fires, eruptions, and earthquakes, produce other changes ; 

 and the world we now inhabit is but the ruins of a former 

 world, for a more particular account and examination of 

 his theory, fee Earth and Planets. In his account of 

 the population of the earth with living creatures, he invefti- 

 gates the analogies between vegetable and animal life ; and in 

 explaining the myftery of animal generation, he allows ample 

 range to his imagination in a variety of hypothcfes and 

 conjeftures. He co'ceives certain " living organic mole- 

 cules," of the fame nature with organized beings, to exift 

 equally in animal and vegetable matter ; and thefe, in the 

 procefs of nutrition, to be received into •' internal moulds," 

 of which animal and vegetable bodies are foitned, where they 

 are affimilated into the fame fubftance as the parts to which 

 they are tranfmitted, and thus nourifli them. When this 

 nutritive matter fuperabounds, it is detached from all parts of 

 the body, and depofited in a fluid form in one or more refer- 

 voirs. This conftitutes a prolific matter, wliich is ready for 

 producing a new animal or vegetable, of the fame fpecies, 

 when it meets with a proper matrix. The fuppofed feminal 

 animalcule are only thefe organic particles, which are fimilar 

 in toth fexes, but mull unite in order to produce a new ani- 

 mal by the procefs of generation. See Genekation. 

 Buffoii's natural hiftory of animals commences with that of 

 man ; whom he traces from the cradle to the grave, through 

 the developemer.t and maturation of his bodily organs and 

 mental powers, the nature and operation of his fenfes, and the 

 feveral varieties of his fpecies, introducing and intermixing 

 in the refearch many curious difcuflions. He then invefti- 

 gates and unfolds the nature of brute animals in general ; 

 and marks the diftinftion between them and men, by denying 

 them a foul, and a memory, properly fo called, and making 

 all their aftions to fpring from external impreffions. The 

 clafs of quadrupeds occupies the whole remainder of this firft 

 work. To his hiftory of quadrupeds he added, in 1776, a 

 fupplemcntary volume, which, befides an ingenious differta- 

 tion on mules, contains the hiftoi'y and figures of feveral new 

 animals, and valuable additions to moft of thole defcribed in 

 the original pubhcation. Difdaining the arrangements of 

 fyftematic naturalifts, he has rejefted all the received princi- 

 ples of claffification, and has thrown his fubjefts into groups, 

 laxly formed from general points of refemblancc. Not con- 

 tent with deviating from eftablilhed modes of diftribution, he 

 ridicules the authors of fyftematic arrangements, and particu- 

 larly the late ingenious and indefatigable Linnaeus, whofe 

 zeal and labours in inveftigating and clailing natural objefts 

 entitle him to the higheft applaufe. It is hardly neceffary 

 to remark, that he has adapted his ftyle to the particular 

 fubjefts of his difcuflion. Whilft the mere enumeration of 

 fads, ordefcriptionsof the figure, dimenfions, and colourofani- 



mals. 



