BUFFON
Georges Louis Leclerc, created in 1773 Comte de Buffon, was born at Montbard, in France, on September 7, 1707. Evincing a marked bent for science he became, in 1739, director of the Jardin du Roi and the King's Museum in Paris. He had long contemplated the preparation of a complete History of Nature, and now proceeded to carry out the work. The first three volumes of the "Histoire Naturelle, Générale et Particulière" appeared in 1749, and other volumes followed at frequent intervals until his death at Paris on April 16, 1788. Buffon's immense enterprise was greeted with abounding praise by most of his contemporaries. On July 1, 1752, he was elected to the French Academy in succession to Languet de Gergy, Archbishop of Sens, and, at his reception on August 25 in the following year, pronounced the oration in which occurred the memorable aphorism, "Le style est l'homme même" (The style is the very man). Buffon also anticipated Thomas Carlyle's definition of genius ("which means the transcendent capacity of taking trouble, first of all") by his famous axiom, "Le génie n'est autre chose qu'une grande aptitude à la patience."
Scope of the Work
Buffon planned his "Natural History" on an encyclopaedic scale. His point of view was unique. Natural history in its widest sense, he tells us, embraces every object in the visible universe. The obvious divisions of the subject, therefore, are, first, the earth, the air, and the water; then the animals—quadrupeds, birds, fishes, and so on—inhabiting each of these "elements," to use the phrase of his day. Now, Buffon argued, if man were required to give some account of the animals by which he was surrounded, of course he would begin with those with which he was most familiar, as the horse, the dog, the cow. From these he would proceed to the creatures with which he was less familiar, and finally deal—through the medium of travellers' tales and other sources of information—with the denizens of field, forest and flood in foreign lands. In similar fashion he would consider the plants, minerals, and other products of Nature, in addition to recounting the marvels revealed to him by astronomy.
Whatever its defects on the scientific side, Buffon's plan was simplicity itself, and was adopted largely, if not entirely, in consequence of his contempt—real or affected—for the systematic method of the illustrious Linnæus. Having charted his course, the rest was plain sailing. He starts with the physical globe, discussing the formation of the planets, the features of the earth—mountains, rivers, seas, lakes, tides, currents, winds, volcanoes, earthquakes, islands, and so forth—and the effects of the encroachment and retreat of the ocean.
Animate nature next concerns him. After comparing animals, plants and minerals, he proceeds to study man literally from the cradle to the grave, garnishing the narrative with those incursions into the domains of psychology, physiology and hygiene, which, his detractors insinuated, rendered his work specially attractive and popular.
I.—The Four-Footed Animals
Such questions occupied the first three volumes, and the ground was now cleared for the celebrated treatise on Quadrupeds, which filled no fewer than twelve volumes, published at various dates from 1753 (vol. iv.) to 1767 (vol. xv., containing the New World monkeys, indexes, and the like). Buffon's modus operandi saved him from capital blunders. Though inordinately vain—"I know but five great geniuses," he once said; "Newton, Bacon, Leibniz, Montesquieu, and myself"—he was quite conscious of his own limitations, and had the common-sense to entrust to Daubenton the description of the anatomy and other technical matters as to which his own knowledge was comparatively defective. He reserved to himself what may be called the "literary" aspect of his theme, recording the place of each animal in history, and relating its habits with such gusto as his ornate and grandiose style permitted.
After a preliminary dissertation on the nature of animals, Buffon plunges into an account of those that have been domesticated or tamed. Preference of place is given to the horse, and his method of treatment is curiously anticipatory of modern lines. Beginning with some notice of the horse in history, he goes on to describe its appearance and habits and the varieties of the genus, ending (by the hand of Daubenton) with an account of its structure and physiology. As evidence of the pains he took to collect authority for his statements, it is of interest to mention that he illustrates the running powers of the English horse by citing the instance of Thornhill, the postmaster of Stilton, who, in 1745, wagered he would ride the distance from Stilton to London thrice in fifteen consecutive hours. Setting out from Stilton, and using eight different horses, he accomplished his task in 3 hours 51 minutes. In the return journey he used six horses, and took 3 hours 52 minutes. For the third race he confined his choice of horses to those he had already ridden, and, selecting seven, achieved the distance in 3 hours 49 minutes. He performed the undertaking in 11 hours and 32 minutes. "I doubt," comments Buffon, "whether in the Olympic Games there was ever witnessed such rapid racing as that displayed by Mr. Thornhill."
Justice having been done to it, the horse gives place to the ass, ox, sheep, goat, pig, dog, and cat, with which he closes the account of the domesticated animals, to which three volumes are allotted. It is noteworthy that Buffon frequently, if not always, gives the synonyms of the animals' names in other languages, and usually supports his textual statements by footnote references to his authorities.
When he comes to the Carnivores—"les animaux nuisibles"—the defects of Buffon's higgledy-piggledy plan are almost ludicrously evident, for flesh-eaters, fruit-eaters, insect-eaters, and gnawers rub shoulders with colossal indifference. Doubtless, however, this is to us all the more conspicuous, because use and wont have made readers of the present day acquainted with the advantages of classification, which it is but fair to recognise has been elaborated and perfected since Buffon's time.
As his gigantic task progressed, Buffon's difficulties increased. At the beginning of vol. xii. (1764) he intimates that, with a view to break the monotony of a narrative in which uniformity is an unavoidable feature, he will in future, from time to time, interrupt the general description by discourses on Nature and its effects on a grand scale. This will, he naively adds, enable him to resume "with renewed courage" his account of details the investigation of which demands "the calmest patience, and affords no scope for genius."
II.—The Birds
Scarcely had he finished the twelve volumes of Quadrupeds when Buffon turned to the Birds. If this section were less exacting, yet it made enormous claims upon his attention, and nine volumes were occupied before the history of the class was concluded. Publication of "Des Oiseaux" was begun in 1770, and continued intermittently until 1783. But troubles dogged the great naturalist. The relations between him and Daubenton had grown acute, and the latter, unwilling any longer to put up with Buffon's love of vainglory, withdrew from the enterprise to which his co-operation had imparted so much value. Serious illness, also, and the death of Buffon's wife, caused a long suspension of his labours, which were, however, lightened by the assistance of Guéneau de Montbéliard.
One stroke of luck he had, which no one will begrudge the weary Titan. James Bruce, of Kinnaird, on his return from Abyssinia in 1773, spent some time with Buffon at his château in Montbard, and placed at his disposal several of the remarkable discoveries he had made during his travels. Buffon was not slow to appreciate this godsend. Not only did he, quite properly, make the most of Bruce's disinterested help, but he also expressed the confident hope that the British Government would command the publication of Bruce's "precious" work. He went on to pay a compliment to the English, and so commit them to this enterprise. "That respectable nation," he asserts, "which excels all others in discovery, can but add to its glory in promptly communicating to the world the results of the excellent travellers' researches."
Still unfettered by any scheme of classification, either scientific or logical, Buffon begins his account of the birds with the eagles and owls. To indicate his course throughout the vast class, it will suffice to name a few of the principal birds in the order in which he takes them after the birds of prey. These, then, are the ostrich, bustard, game birds, pigeons, crows, singing birds, humming birds, parrots, cuckoos, swallows, woodpeckers, toucans, kingfishers, storks, cranes, secretary bird, herons, ibis, curlews, plovers, rails, diving birds, pelicans, cormorants, geese, gulls, and penguins. With the volume dealing with the picarian birds (woodpeckers) Buffon announces the withdrawal of Guéneau de Montbéliard, and his obligations for advice and help to the Abbé Bexon (1748–1784), Canon of Sainte Chapelle in Paris.
III.—Supplement and Sequel
At the same time that the Birds volumes were passing through the press, Buffon also issued periodically seven volumes of a supplement (1774–1789), the last appearing posthumously under the editorship of Count Lacépède. This consisted of an olla podrida of all sorts of papers, such as would have won the heart of Charles Godfrey Leland. The nature of the hotchpotch will be understood from a recital of some of its contents, in their chronological order. It opened with an introduction to the history of minerals, partly theoretical (concerning light, heat, fire, air, water, earth, and the law of attraction), and partly experimental (body heat, heat in minerals, the nature of platinum, the ductility of iron). Then were discussed incandescence, fusion, ships' guns, the strength and resistance of wood, the preservation of forests and reafforestation, the cooling of the earth, the temperature of planets, additional observations on quadrupeds already described, accounts of animals not noticed before, such as the tapir, quagga, gnu, nylghau, many antelopes, the vicuña, Cape ant-eater, star-nosed mole, sea-lion, and others; the probabilities of life (a subject on which the author plumed himself), and his essay on the Epochs of Nature.
Nor did these concurrent series of books exhaust his boundless energy and ingenuity, for in the five years preceding his death (1783–1788), he produced his "Natural History of Minerals" in five volumes, the last of which was mainly occupied with electricity, magnetism, and the loadstone. It is true that the researches of modern chemists have wrought havoc with Buffon's work in this field; but this was his misfortune rather than his fault, and leaves untouched the quantity of his output.
Buffon invoked the aid of the artist almost from the first, and his "Natural History" is illustrated by hundreds of full-page copper-plate engravings, and embellished with numerous elegant headpiece designs. The figures of the animals are mostly admirable examples of portraiture, though the classical backgrounds lend a touch of the grotesque to many of the compositions. Illustrations of anatomy, physiology, and other features of a technical character are to be numbered by the score, and are, of course, indispensable in such a work. The editio princeps is cherished by collectors because of the 1,008 coloured plates ("Planches Enluminées") in folio, the text itself being in quarto, by the younger Daubenton, whose work was spiritedly engraved by Martinet. Apparently anxious to illustrate one section exhaustively rather than several sections in a fragmentary manner, the artist devoted himself chiefly to the birds, which monopolise probably nine-tenths of the plates, and to which he may also have been attracted by their gorgeous plumages.
As soon as the labourer's task was over, his scientific friends thought the best monument which they could raise to his memory was to complete his "Natural History." This duty was discharged by two men, who, both well qualified, worked, however, on independent lines. Count Lacépède, adhering to the format of the original, added two volumes on the Reptiles (1788–1789), five on the Fishes (1798–1803), and one on the Cetaceans (1804). Sonnini de Manoncourt (1751–1812), feeling that this edition, though extremely handsome, was cumbersome, undertook an entirely new edition in octavo. This was begun in 1797, and finished in 1808. It occupied 127 volumes, and, Lacépède's treatises not being available, Sonnini himself dealt with the Fishes (thirteen volumes) and Whales (one volume), P.A. Latreille with the Crustaceans and Insects (fourteen volumes), Denys-Montfort with the Molluscs (six volumes), F.M. Dandin with the Reptiles (eight volumes), and C.F. Brisseau-Mirbel and N. Jolyclerc with the Plants (eighteen volumes). Sonnini's edition constituted the cope-stone of Buffon's work, and remained the best edition, until the whole structure was thrown down by the views of later naturalists, who revolutionised zoology.
IV.—Place and Doctrine
Buffon may justly be acclaimed as the first populariser of natural history. He was, however, unscientific in his opposition to systems, which, in point of fact, essentially elucidated the important doctrine that a continuous succession of forms runs throughout the animal kingdom. His recognition of this principle was, indeed, one of his greatest services to the science.
Another of his wise generalisations was that Nature proceeds by unknown gradations, and consequently cannot adapt herself to formal analysis, since she passes from one species to another, and often from one genus to another, by shades of difference so delicate as to be wholly imperceptible.
In Buffon's eyes Nature is an infinitely diversified whole which it is impossible to break up and classify. "The animal combines all the powers of Nature; the forces animating it are peculiarly its own; it wishes, does, resolves, works, and communicates by its senses with the most distant objects. One's self is a centre where everything agrees, a point where all the universe is reflected, a world in miniature." In natural history, accordingly, each animal or plant ought to have its own biography and description.
Life, Buffon also held, abides in organic molecules. "Living beings are made up of these molecules, which exist in countless numbers, which may be separated but cannot be destroyed, which pierce into brute matter, and, working there, develop, it may be animals, it may be plants, according to the nature of the matter in which they are lodged. These indestructible molecules circulate throughout the universe, pass from one being to another, minister to the continuance of life, provide for nutrition and the growth of the individual, and determine the reproduction of the species."
Buffon further taught that the quantity and quality of life pass from lower to higher stages—in Tennysonian phrase, men "rise on stepping-stones of their dead selves to higher things"—and showed the unity and structure of all beings, of whom man is the most perfect type.
It has been claimed that Buffon in a measure anticipated Lamarck and Darwin. He had already foreseen the mutability of species, but had not succeeded in proving it for varieties and races. If he asserted that the species of dog, jackal, wolf and fox were derived from a single one of these species, that the horse came from the zebra, and so on, this was far from being tantamount to a demonstration of the doctrine. In fact, he put forward the mutability of species rather as probable theory than as established truth, deeming it the corollary of his views on the succession and connection of beings in a continuous series.
Some case may be made out for regarding Buffon as the founder of zoogeography; at all events he was the earliest to determine the natural habitat of each species. He believed that species changed with climate, but that no kind was found throughout all the globe. Man alone has the privilege of being everywhere and always the same, because the human race is one. The white man (European or Caucasian), the black man (Ethiopian), the yellow man (Mongol), and the red man (American) are only varieties of the human species. As the Scots express it with wonted pith, "We're a' Jock Tamson's bairns."
As to his geological works, Buffon expounded two theories of the formation of the globe. In his "Théorie de la Terre" he supported the Neptunists, who attributed the phenomena of the earth to the action of water. In his "Epoques de la Nature" he amplified the doctrines of Leibniz, and laid down the following propositions: (1) The earth is elevated at the equator and depressed at the poles in accordance with the laws of gravitation and centrifugal force; (2) it possesses an internal heat, apart from that received from the sun; (3) its own heat is insufficient to maintain life; (4) the substances of which the earth is composed are of the nature of glass, or can be converted into glass as the result of heat and fusion—that is, are verifiable; (5) everywhere on the surface, including mountains, exist enormous quantities of shells and other maritime remains.
To the theses just enumerated Buffon added what he called the "monuments," or what Hugh Miller, a century later, more aptly described as the Testimony of the Rocks. From a consideration of all these things, Buffon at length arrived at his succession of the Epochs, or Seven Ages of Nature, namely: (1) the Age of fluidity, or incandescence, when the earth and planets assumed their shape; (2) the Age of cooling, or consolidation, when the rocky interior of the earth and the great vitrescible masses at its surface were formed; (3) the Age when the waters covered the face of the earth; (4) the Age when the waters retreated and volcanoes became active; (5) the Age when the elephant, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, and other giants roamed through the northern hemisphere; (6) the Age of the division of the land into the vast areas now styled the Old and the New Worlds; and (7) the Age when Man appeared.