merit is nevertheless but a secondary one with him; his first and true title is that of having been the philosopher of natural history. Whether he discovers the great law of the geographical distribution of beings on the earth, or lays down the question of the variability of species, or whether, again, he seeks to penetrate the mystery of the birth of the terrestrial globe, he rises everywhere to the highest point to which human speculation can ascend. His history is the only one in France which, after that of Bossuet, merits and more justly, too, than the latter -the title of Universal. The past, the present, the future of our planet, his gaze embraces all; aided by the light of genius, he even ventures to descend into the depths of time, in which gloomy mine every other torch, save that of revelation, had hitherto been threatened with extinction. A modern author has said; “Buffon describes, Cuvier demonstrates." This assertion is scarcely just. If Cuvier continues any one, it is rather Linnæus than Buffon. The school of Cuvier has much more precision, less boldness, less of general views, than that of his predecessor; the one is rather the sculptor, the other the architect of nature. Buffon hews and builds on a grand scale; less heedful of the order and perfection of the details than of the majesty and harmony of the whole, he looks unceasingly to the effects of the perspective. The true disciple of Buffon is not to be sought in France; this disciple is a child of Germany; it is Goethe, who, to his well known poetic genius, added the genius of the naturalist. "I was born," he wrote of himself, "in 1749, in that beautiful year during which were published the three first volumes of Buffon's works; I attach great importance to this coincidence." Buffon's most imposing work is beyond question his "Epochs of Nature," of which we have already made mention. It was also, as is generally the case, the one of all others the most depreciated at its birth. According to Laharpe, the author had written the romance of physics; but Laharpe was no authority on these matters. The nineteenth century has reversed the opinion of the eighteenth on this work of Buffon's, and has judged it, so to speak, from the heights of the progress of science. This new and more elevated point of view has been favorable for Buffon. The admirable labors of Cuvier, in restoring to light the extinct populations of the globe, have much more clearly determined the different ages of the world; but still they have not made us forget the bold discoveries of the prince of French naturalists; for what strength of intuition did that man require who, in the absence even of facts, was enabled to divine what the study of half a century has not even yet revealed to our modern geologists! Buffon was the first to penetrate the shadows of the antique ages; it was from the midst of this chaos, until then misunderstood from out this darkness, which then enveloped the history of our world, that a new light suddenly flashed forth. From the present state of the world which we inhabit he deduced the past state; his eye interrogates the traces impressed on the surface of the earth or deposited within its bowels, and from out this vast theatre of events the intellect of Buffon ascends to a spectacle of ideas. Leaning upon the subterranean monuments of our globe, Buffon opens at every instant, and as if by electric flashes, to our dazzled gaze a multitude of distant horizons which the science of our era is far from having surveyed. Beyond a doubt this work of Buffon's contains many errors in facts; but they belong to those details which are corrected by time, and which in no wise injure the completeness of the edifice. The naturalist wrote this great literary testament at a very advanced age, and yet in no one instance throughout the work do we discover traces either of feebleness or of failing powers. Buffon occupies a distinct and prominent position in the eighteenth century. A philosopher par excellence under this reign of philosophy, he has magnificently exhibited the harmony existing between the Creator and his works. Less witty than Voltaire, less daring than J. J. Rousseau, he equals Montesquieu in the art of thinking as well as of writing. According to Grimm, "Montesquieu possessed the style of genius, and Buffon the genius of style." This distinction is somewhat captious: we prefer discerning between these two great men affinities, or, if the reader prefers it, contrasts of a more simple nature; the one has admirably seized the spirit of the laws of society, and the other that of the laws of nature. Their severe, and in some respects magisterial style, possesses also that solemnity so well suited to the great order of facts. If Buffon has, as some writer of the time said, sacrificed more frequently to the graces than Montesquieu, it is always in his court attire. "M. de Buffon," said Madame Necker, "sometimes renounces the wit of his century but never its pomps." Buffon, for all his style of splendor, held, in fact, many new and independent viewssome favorable, others contrary, to the philosophy of his day. Take for instance this comet, which, according to Buffon's theory, strikes off fragments from the sun, those vitrified and incandescent planets which become cooled by degrees, some more quickly than others, in proportion as their temperature grows milder, those ever increasing ices of the poles, those vast seas which extend from east to west, those isles, the floating fragments of submerged continents, those lofty chains of mountains, the long ridges of the globe's surface-all these hypotheses were, at the period of their promulgation, severely criticised by mathematical minds, as were eminently those of d'Alembert and Condorcet. But these hypotheses, which would have been applauded in Descarte's time, came a century too late. Since Newton's time, physics, from being hypothetical, become experimental. A new spirit had succeeded to the old spirit. Newton, as d'Alembert has so well expressed it, "had demonstrated that which his predecessors had but a glimpse of-namely, the art of introducing geometry into physics, and, by uniting experiment with calculation, of forming a new science, at once exact, luminous, and profound." All was consequently changed, and the experimental method was from henceforth the only method. This great eighteenth century, then, which has been represented as the golden age of hypotheses, was, on the contrary, the age par excellence of geometry; it measured common sense, poetry even, by the scale of calcula Buffon's theory respecting the formation of the planets is a very strange one; he imagined that all the planets had originally formed a portion of the sun, and that the present planets are small frag ments which have been struck from off the sun by the shock of a comet. But in order that the shock of a comet should only detach some fragments, it was necessary that the blow should not be direct, but oblique; and consequently, according to Buffon, it has been so, for it would not cost him more to imagine it oblique than direct. "The fall of comets upon the sun," says Buffon, "may take place in different manners; if they fall direct, or even in a direction not very oblique, they will remain in the sun; . . . but if the fall of the comet takes place in a very oblique direction, which occurrs more frequently than the other, then the comet will merely shave or skim the surface of the sun, knocking off some portion of the luminous matter, to which it will communicate a common motion of impulsion, and these fragments will then become planets, and will gravitate round the luminary in the same sense and the same plane. tions. In these respects Buffon was rather of the present time than of his own, for he possessed the imagination of science. When the chain of events fails him, we find him creating it anew; where Nature no longer speaks, he interprets her silence. A poet after his own fashion, he is nowhere so completely at his ease as in the realms of the marvellous, whether in ideas or facts. Hume expresses, somewhere, his astonishment on reading the cosmography of Buffon; and this expression of surprise was that of all enlightened men. But, as we have previously remarked, he who sees but the hypotheses and systems of Buffon sees not Buffon; it must be borne in inind that there were in Buffon two spirits, two philosophies, two epochs. There were the spirit of experiment and that of hypothesis, experimental philosophy and systematic philosophy, the epoch of Descartes and that of Newton; and while deploring the abuse which he made of systems, we must admire the vast ensemble of sure and experimental laws with which he has enriched the minds of men. As we have already shown, all Buffon's ideas cannot be considered as authorities in science; but those upon the degeneration of animals, and upon the limits which climates, mountains, and seas assign to each species, may indeed be considered as true discoveries. We might quote many other observations of Buffon upon the mechanism of the universe, which have not grown old; but his principal title to renown is that of having founded a system of natural philosophy. For genius to foresee is to see. Thus, Buffon has constructed in advance, without ever having all the materials before him, the plan of the history of the terrestrial globe. Since his day, the naturalists have collected a multitude of facts previously unknown; they have gathered together and deciphered those medals of another and anterior age, to reveal to us, children of the earth, the chronology of the soil we tread. But amid all these prodigies, we must not forget the hand which, the first, illumined the torch that was to cast light upon the buried ruins of the ancient world. We ought not, for a few inevitable errors, contest with Buffon the privilege of having assigned to the philosophy of the history of animals its true rank among the exact and speculative sciences. Naturalists affect to extol Buffon as a writer, while the writers love to vaunt him as a naturalist. This system of criminal tactics is not a happy one. The alliance of thought and form is nowhere so close as in the historian to whom we owe a knowledge of the works and designs of God in the visible world. We have already, more than once in the course of this article, alluded to Buffon's "style" and though a complete study of this style would lead us far beyond the limits we have proposed to ourselves, we are unwilling to conclude without offering a few observations upon the subject, for Buffon, who is so great in his thoughts, is even greater through the language with which he has clothed them. Like all great writers, like all great thinkers, Buffon has given utterance to several maxims-some true, others less so; as for instance, when he says, "Genius is but a great aptitude for patience;" and this, in our opinion, is false, for no amount of patience will ever give the inner view of things, or the sentiment of affinities; all this is a gift of nature. Genius is inspiration. More to our taste is this less celebrated sentence, “Happiness proceeds from sweetness of disposition;" in our opinion, a truly charming sentiment. At seventy years of age, he said, There are, in the style of a great writer, genius and art. The art can be imitated"I am learning every day to write; and his more or less happily-the genius never. We last work, the Epochs of Nature, is, in point are told, that when Gueneau de Montbeillard of fact, of all his admirable works, the most -one of Buffon's collaborateurs-published perfect. his early articles under the name of his chief, Buffon's conversational was not by a great the public were at first deceived, simply be- deal so brilliant as his written style; but cause he had imitated the art of Buffon; but though negligent, it became, when he wished the mistake did not last long, and for this it, singularly attractive. In fact, what new reason, because he had been unable to imi-views, what unknown ideas, could Buffon tate his genius. The art of the style belongs bring into that brilliant portion of the world less to the writer: the genius of the style is which is termed, par excellence, "the world," the man himself. The art is the exterior of and where he was the only one who knew the the style, but an imitator will never have a things that he did know! "The conversastyle, because, to use Buffon's own words, tion of M. de Buffon," says Madame Necker, "the style is the man." Madame Necker "possesses a peculiar attraction. He has ocvery justly remarked, that even Buffon, when cupied himself all his lifetime with ideas comhe imitated himself, was no longer success-pletely foreign to the minds of other men, so ful. "The eulogium of the Chevalier de Chastelux, composed by M. de Buffon, on the occasion of the former's election into the French Academy, is," she says, "the only that everything he says has the piquancy of novelty." In Buffon's eyes, the supreme genius was the genius of style. bad work Buffon ever wrote, and it is bad "The vastness of our erudition, the singularity because he imitated himself. He had but of the facts we may collect, the novelty even of commonplace ideas on this subject, yet he our discoveries, are not," he says, "sure guaranwished to clothe them with his beautiful tees of immortality. Well written works are the style." But there is one thing which the only ones which will go down to posterity." imitators of style will never succeed in imi-and carry away with us the multitude, or to stag"What are required," he says again, "to move tating, and that is the genius of expression; and it is in this genius of expression in which Buffon excels. Voltaire reproached Buffon's style as being too solemn and pompous; every one knows his line, "Dans un style ampoule parlez nous de physique." He says, elsewhere, "This sentence, stolen ger, persuade, and convince men? A vehement and pathetic tone, gestures expressive and frequent, rapid and sonorous words. But for the select number of those whose heads are steady, whose senses are delicate, and tastes polished and refined, and who reckon the tone, the gestures, and the vain sounds of mere words as matters of but trifling import, we require objects, thoughts, reasons; we must be enabled to present them in an attractive form and with an attractive manner, to modify and dispose them variously; it suffices not to strike the ear and fill the eye, we must act upon the mind, and touch the heart, while addressing the understanding.” Thus, mere eloquence, the eloquence of words, is not style. We consider eloquent, now-a-days, only that which is so by style. The art of writing is at the present day what spoken eloquence was in ancient times; all the forces of the human intellect are summed up in this great art, and, as it belonged to Buffon to proclaim, the power of modern times is style. When once Buffon had commenced his great history," he permitted no private work to distract his attention from his colossal task. During fifty years there was scarcely a single day lost for study, or a single study lost for the work. Of all the honors, however, with which the old age of Buffon was surrounded, that which the most highly flattered his legitimate pride, was the erection of a statue in his honor in that same "Jardin des Plantes" which he had adorned, not only with his gifts, but also with the light of his genius. On the base were inscribed the following words: "Majestati naturæ par ingenium." most to intoxication. About the same time Prior to these studies Buffon, as we have already said, had made himself known to the scientific world by a few "papers" read at The joy which Buffon experienced at this the "Academie des Sciences," by a learned exhibition of public homage amounted alexperiment that on burning-glasses; and by his son, the Chevalier de Buffon, who aftertwo admirable prefaces prefixed to his trans-wards perished on the revolutionary scaffold, lations of Hales and Newton; and it may erected another and more modest statue in with truth be affirmed that these first essays his father's gardens at Montbar. gave evidence of what was to come. In the two prefaces, for instance, we see the think- tower, which was of lofty elevation, he placed ing man, as in the experiment on burning- a column with this inscription: glasses we readily discern the man to whom all will appear possible provided it be great. Voltaire has enriched French literature with a collection of letters admirable for their facility, grace, and elegance of style. Of Buffon, as of Montesquieu, but a few familiar letters written in the most common place style have been preserved. Yet even these letters are curious. If the author is not there, the man is, and in company with his two most lively passions-the love of labor and the need of glory. After literary labor, what Buffon loved the most was glory, and perhaps also praise: "You do not mention," writes he to his friend the Abbé Bexon, "if the preamble to the article on parrots has pleased you; yet it seems to me that, with regard to the metaphysics of the language, I have therein chattered tolerably well.' Nothing is better known than the naïveté of his self-love; he felt an inward conviction of his own talent and genius, and expressed it openly, without the slightest exhibition of false modesty. Having been asked, one day, how many great men he reckoned in the world, he replied, "Five; Newton, Bacon, Liebnitz, Montesquieu, and myself." This high idea which Buffon entertained of himself was, however, fully justified by the esteem of his contemporaries. "Voltaire,' Voltaire," says Laharpe, "made, it is true, more noise than Buffon; he was more feared and more run after as being the voice of daily opinion, but Buffon was more highly respected, because this same opinion had never disturbed his glory, nor separated his person from his talents." "Excelsæ turri humilis columna Near the Parenti suo, filius Buffon, 1785." The aged naturalist, according to a writer of At the period when the first volumes of Buffon was very susceptible to criticism, and, above all, dreaded satire. It is well known that when the critic and satirist Rivarol entered the world, Buffon received him with a thousand marks of favor. He offered him an apartment in his house at Paris, and gave him a general invitation to Montbar. This manner of lodging Nemesis does not, it is true, redound very much to Buffon's honor, A man of his incontestable genius might have shown himself superior to the stings of satire or criticism; but it must, however, be said, to his praise, that though frequently written against, he never replied. Much has been written on Buffon. Besides the written and spoken opinions of Montes quieu, d'Alembert, and others, Condorcet | wish to pronounce the eulogium of Buffon." and Vicq-d'Azyr have each composed an In conclusion, like the philosophical mathehistorical eulogium of the naturalist. These matician, Pascal,-like the other creative geotwo "eloges," each differing greatly in char- metrician, who, in the midst of his abstruse acter, are both of them very remarkable; calculations, was yet enabled to write the prebut Condorcet was not a naturalist, and liminary discourse of the celebrated French Vicq-d'Azyr was rather an anatomist and "Encyclopædia," Buffon possessed the genius physiologist than a naturalist; consequently of science and that of style. Although enterwe find Condorcet attaching himself above all ing very late-at nearly forty years of ageto the genius, to the man; and Vicq-d'Azyr, upon the study of natural history, the age at who discerns better the labors of the man, which his contemporary, Jean Jacques Rousdoes not always perceive all their vastness seau, entered the field of letters, he yet had and comprehensiveness. time to embrace the circle of the life and But the true judge of Buffon is, without exception, Cuvier. The article on Buffon, from his pen, in the "Biographie Universelle, is a finished piece of literary workmanship. What we, above all, admire in this performance, is the calm tone, the clear views, and that quiet, sensible style, which possesses such a charm in the treatment of great subjects. We love, moreover, to see these two great men, as it were, side by side; the human intellect appears exalted by the comparison; and paraphrasing here the beautiful thought of a great writer, we may say that, "It is at the feet of Cuvier's statue that we should history of the universe. A philosopher at the same time, and in the same degree as he was a naturalist, a writer moreover of the first order, he united in his own person several merits, any one of which would alone have sufficed to hand down his name with honor to posterity. Buffon died in Paris, on the 16th of April, 1788, at the age of eighty-one; of which long life more than fifty years were devoted to that series of vast and unremitting researches in the field of natural science, the noble monument of which we have just been considering. From Hogg's Instructor. PROFESSOR AGASSIZ. A VERY able man has figured in science of late years on the continent of Europe, namely, Professor Agassiz, of Switzerland. No name, since the time of Cuvier, has stood higher among the European savans than that of the individual mentioned; and his merits are of the class that command lasting popularity. He has been an originator of new ideas; and that on a subject second only to astronomy in depth and grandeur of interest -to wit, the physical history of our globe, or geology. M. Agassiz was born in the town of Mottier, in the Swiss canton of Friburg, on the 28th of May, 1807. His ancestors were of French origin, and were among those Protestants whom the revocation of the Edict of | Nantes obliged to leave France. The father of Agassiz was a Protestant minister, and it was expected that his son, following the example of his ancestors, would devote himself to the service of the Church. But natural history, which from an early age strongly arrested his attention, had, on the completion of his studies at school, gained so great an ascendancy, that he chose the profession of medicine, as offering the best opportunities for prosecuting his favorite pursuits. He commenced the study of his profession at the Academy of Zurich, whence he went to the University of Heidelberg, where he devoted himself especially to the study of anatomy, under the direction of the celebrated Professor Tiedemann. At the university he was |