PASSION THE SOUL OF SCIENCE. 
825 
of the systems of botanical classification such as I once had to study 
under pretext of embellishing the mind ; systems in which the 
number of stamens or the parting of a corolla are taken for bases 
of the distribution of groups and series. 
The princes of science who have hitherto written natural history, 
and who have left aside the passional title of beasts and of flowers, 
to speak only of the disposition of their external organs, resemble 
a historian who, aiming to write the history of Julius Caesar, or of 
Alexander, should limit himself to speak of the length of his hero’s 
nose, of the color of his hair, or the cut of his coat, and should for- 
get to mention his dominant passions ; is it not true that such a 
W'Ork, pi-esented to an enlightened public, would be closed after 
reading the first page, and would cover its author with contempt? 
The public would be right, because soul, passion, the drama are 
the only things desired in a narrative, the nerve of interest, the col- 
or of action. Why is a daguerrotype, which reproduces with 
geometrical exactness the form and features of a countenance, less 
like than a painted portrait ? Precisely because the mathemat- 
ical instrument has painted only the external envelop, while the 
brush has painted the soul, the passion, the character, what vve 
seek first of all in a physiognomy. The figure, like the style, is 
the man. Now the greatest naturalists are, for the most part, only 
daguerrotypers more or less skillful, and not painters. Buffon and 
Linnaeus, who are sometimes great poets, are really great poets 
only in painting passions. I would give all the scientific part of 
Buffon’s works for the thirty sublime pages that he has written on 
the doo^, the horse, the staof, or the kamichi. I would give all the 
laborious classification of Linnaeus for his discovery of the two sex- 
es and the loves of flowers. Out of passion there is no true sci- 
ence, no style, no immortality. Another capital error and ill- 
placed pretension of science, is that of forcing an individual into a 
family in the absence of all knowledge of its kindred. It is curi- 
ous to speak of a person’s family without knowing their names, 
their origin, or their genealogy. 
Thus I know at the Institute, and elsewhere, a number of learn- 
ed men very strong on infinitesimal calculations, and who would 
not be embarrassed to tell me in due time how many minutes and 
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