ide, 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 Linnaeus. 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 postmas