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MEMOIR OP DATJBENTON. 
by which they are restrained and kept in a uniform 
system : to transfuse into this picture all the freshness 
and splendour of the original : — such was the most diffi- 
cult task that author had to undertake who would re- 
store this beautiful science to the lustre it had lost; 
such was that in which the ardent imagination of Buffon, 
his elevated genius, and deep feeling for the beauties of 
nature, ought to have enabled him to undertake with 
perfect success. 
But if truth had not been the foundation of his un- 
dertaking ; if he had lavished the brilliant colours of 
his palette on incorrect or unfaithful drawings, and had 
combined only imaginary facts, he might indeed have 
appeared as an elegant writer or ingenious poet, but he 
would not have been a naturalist, and he could not have 
aspired to the object at which his ambition aimed, that 
of being a reformer in science. 
It was necessary, therefore, that every thing should 
be reviewed, collected, and observed ; it was necessary 
to compare the forms and dimensions of beings ; to carry 
the scalpel into their interior, and disclose the most 
secret parts of their organization. Buffon felt that his 
impatient mind would not allow him to engage in such 
toilsome labours ; and that, moreover, the weakness of 
his eye-sight would deprive him of the hope of engaging 
in them with success. He sought for an individual, who, 
joined to the correctness of judgment and delicacy of tact, 
necessary for such researches, had enough of modesty 
and devotion to the subject, to be satisfied with a part 
