Natural History [Christmas Summary Classics]

Comte De 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."