s will power and
control of his own organism. Much disease would be prevented if we could
develop and control moral states.

BUFFON

Natural History

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, Generale et Particuliere" 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 meme" (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 genie n'est autre chose
qu'une grande aptitude a 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 s