204 
MEMOIR OP DAUBENTON. 
the work that contained them, and for the sole reason 
that' it did contain them, the names of work of gold, a 
work truly classical ; they regarded with indifference 
the author at Paris : and some of those flatterers, who 
creep before renown as before power, because renown is 
likewise power, succeeded in making Buffon believe, 
that he would gain by getting rid of his importunate 
fellow labourer. We have even heard since the secre- 
tary of an illustrious academy assert, that naturalists 
alone might regret, if he had followed this advice ! 
Buffon therefore caused an edition of the Natural 
History to he prepared, in thirteen volumes 12to., from 
which not only the anatomical part was excluded, hut 
also the description of the exterior of animals, which 
Daubenton had drawn up for the large edition ; and as 
nothing was substituted, it followed that this work gives 
no idea of the form, nor colour, nor distinctive charac- 
ters of animals ; so that if this small edition had alone 
resisted the prejudices of the times, as the multitude 
of impressions now published would lead us to believe, 
we would no longer find much better means of recog- 
nising the animals of which the author speaks, than are 
to be found in Pliny and Aristotle, who have likewise 
neglected the detail of descriptions. 
Buffon determined to appear alone in what he after- 
wards published, both on birds and minerals. Be- 
sides the affront, Daubenton thereby suffered a con- 
siderable loss. He might have remonstrated ; for this 
undertaking on natural history had been concerted in 
