he 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 Lacepede,
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, Lacepede'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, abi