pointment of Buffon in 1739, who was preferred to the situation in consequence of the dying request of Du Fay, his immediate predecessor. This illustrious writer was already distinguished by several memoirs on mathematics, natural philosophy, and rural economy, which had gained him admittance to the Academy of Sciences; but he was as yet unknown as a naturalist. Endowed with that power of attention which discovers the most distant relations of thought, and that brilliancy of imagination which commands the attention of others to the result of laborious investigations, he was equally fitted to succeed in different walks of genius. He had not yet decided to what objects he should devote his talents and acquirements, when his nomination to the place of Intendant of the King's Garden determined him to attach himself to natural history. As his reputation increased, he employed the advantages afforded by his credit and celebrity, to enrich the establishment to which he had allied himself; and to him are owing its growth and improvement till the period of its reorganization, and that extension and variety which rendered a reorganization necessary. If the Museum owes its splendour to Buffon-to that magnificent establishment, he, on the other hand, owes his fame. If he had not been placed in the midst of collections, furnished by Government with the means of augmenting them, and thus enabled by extensive correspondence to elicit information from all the naturalists of his day, he would never have conceived the plan of his natural history, or been able to carry it into execution; for that genius which embraces a great variety of facts, in order to deduce from them general conclusions, is continually exposed to err, if it has not at hand all the elements of its speculations.

We may now be said to commence the second period of the history of the Royal Garden. When Buffon entered upon his office, the Cabinet consisted of two small rooms, and a third, containing the preparations of anatomy, which were not exposed to public view: the herbarium was in the apartment of the demonstrator of botany: the Garden, which was limited to the present nursery on the eastern side, to the green house on the north, and the galleries of natural history on the west, still presented empty spaces, and contained neither avenues nor regular plantations.

Buffon first directed his attention to the increasing of the collections, and to the providing of more commodious places for their reception. They were arranged in two large rooms of the building, which contains the present galleries, and which was formerly the dwelling house of the Intendant; and, soon after were opened to the public on appointed days. He next occupied himself in the embellishment of the Garden. Having cut down an old ave

* The name of Museum of Natural History is of recent date; it was given at the period when the Garden assumed its present form, and was employed to designate the union of three former establishments, the King's Garden, the Cabinet, and the Menagerie.

nue which did not correspond with the principal gate, he replaced it in 1740, by one of lime trees in the proper direction, and planted another parallel on the other side of the parterre. These avenues, which are now more than eighty years old, terminate towards the extremity of the nursery, and mark the limits of the Garden at that period.

The care of the Cabinet was at this time intrusted to Bernard de Jussieu, who had bestowed unceasing pains upon its arrangement and preservation. The extent of his knowledge, and the facility with which he seized the affinities of bodies, and classed them in their natural order, qualified him particularly for this task, rendered more difficult by the increase of the collections; but, being diverted by other occupations, and residing at some distance from the Garden, he expressed a desire to be relieved from an office which required unwearied activity and ceaseless assiduity. Buffon also felt that his researches in natural history needed the assistance of a man who had still all the ardour of youth, and who possessed, in a high degree, both the spirit of method, and a talent for observation. Gifted with that genius which seizes the principal characters of objects, and unites them in splendid combinations, he had neither time nor patience for the examination of details, to which the weakness of his sight was also an obstacle. He made choice of his countryman Daubenton, who was then twenty-nine years of age, and who, after studying botany under De Jessieu, and anatomy under Winslow and Duverney, had retired to Montbard, the place of his birth to practice medicine. Buffon invited him to Paris, and in 1745, procured him the place of keeper of the Cabinet, with a lodging in the Garden, and appointments which soon rose from 500 to 4000 francs per annum. He charged him with the arrangement of the Cabinet, and associated him to his own studies, in the descriptive part of his natural history, especially in the anatomy.

The first volumes of his great work on Natural History were published in 1749, and attracted the attention of all Europe. The subsequent labours of Linnæus, and the light which his classification threw upon the intricate and almost endless variety of subjects, no doubt contributed greatly to augment the number of zealous students, and to increase their confidence in the result of their labours; but the splendid writings of Buffon may be said to have been the first which excited a general interest in this delightful study. These two men may be looked upon as the great lights of the science of nature.

But to return to the history of the Museum. In 1766, the collection had so greatly increased, that Buffon, who had previously given up a part of his dwelling house, which he occupied as Superintendant of the Garden, now resigned it entirely, and removed to No. 13, Rue des Fosses Saint Victor. The Cabinet was then disposed in four large saloons, which contained the whole

collection till the reorganization. These saloons were open to the public two days in each week, and the pupils had hours set apart for study. Daubenton was always present to give the necessary explanations; and foreign naturalists often resorted to him for instruction. His patience was inexhaustible, but the duties of his situation became too laborious for the exertions of a single individual, and his cousin, the younger Daubenton, was created assistant, with a salary of 2400 francs.

Antony de Jessieu, who still filled the chair of Botany, was no less assiduous in promoting the advancement of his peculiar department, not merely by delivering lectures, but by sending young men, at his own expense, to travel through the provinces, to collect seeds and plants. He formed a library of natural history and a considerable herbarium, which were of eminent service to his illustrious brother and nephew, and which have been always as much at the disposal of those who cultivate the sciences, as if they belonged to the establishment, with this advantage, that desired explanations are never withheld by the courtesy of the possessors. Antony de Jessieu died in 1758, and was succeeded by Lemonier, who being appointed first physician to the king in 1770, Antony Laurence de Jessieu, the present venerable Professor of Botany, succeeded to the chair. Sometime prior to this, J. A. Thouin, the head of a family since become distinguished by its services to the Garden, had obtained a situation as assistant cultivator in the establishment.

Buffon had now attained the meridian of his glory; his works, which assigned him the first rank amongst the authors of his time, had diffused a universal taste for the study of Natural History, while the collections he had formed facilitated the study of this science. In foreign countries, also, he enjoyed the highest reputation; and the authors of new observations, or discoveries, eagerly communicated them to a man of genius, by whom to be mentioned was a sort of passport to immortality. M. D'Angiviller, whose place as director of the King's buildings, and chief of the Academies of painting and sculpture, required him to point out the great man whose statues were to be executed in marble at the public expense, asked permission of the King to erect one to Buffon. This was, perhaps, the most flattering distinction which could be conferred on a living man, as it had till then been reserved for the memory of those who had rendered the most eminent services to their country. But the King, reading the judg ment of posterity regarding the merits of Buffon in that of his cotemporaries, assented to the proposal, and the celebrated Pajou was charged with the execution. This statue is now in the lirbary of the Museum. We may easily conceive how gratifying the circumstance must have proved to one so sensible of the love of fame, and withall sufficiently impressed with a knowledge of his own high attainments. "The works of eminent geniuses," he

used to say," are few; they are those of Newton, Bacon, Leibnitz, Montesquieu, and my own."

The health of Buffon, which had suffered severely during the preceding year, being perfectly re-established in the beginning of 1772, he resolved to fix his residence once more in the Garden, and to employ his whole influence for the benefit of the establishment. With the aid of government, he purchased two houses adjoining the museum, one of which he destined for the dwelling of the Intendant, and removed into it accordingly; the first floor was approprited to his household, and the others to such objects as had not yet found their place in the Museum. The return of Buffon forms an epoch in the history of the Garden. From that moment, every branch of the establishment rapidly increased, and the way was prepared for the improvements which have taken place since the new organization. It would far exceed our utmost limits if we were to give a detail of all the improvements introduced by Buffon during the sixteen years of his administration. Suffice it to say, that the Garden was more than doubled in extent, its plan and distribution became regular and beautiful, and every possible advantage was offered for the culture and study of vegetables: but the perfection of one part of the establishment only rendered the deficiencies of the rest more apparent. The Cabinet was not spacious enough to contain the vast accession of objects, and the Amphitheatre was both too small, and in other respects inconvenient.

In 1787, Buffon procured the purchase of the Hotel de Magny, with its courts and gardens, situated between the Hill of Evergreens, and the Ru de Seine; he there constructed the Amphitheatre, which now serves for the lectures of botany and chemistry, and removed the lodging of M. M. Daubenton, and Lacepede to the Hotel de Magny. The second floor of the Cabinet which was thus left vacant, was fitted up for the reception of the collections, and permission obtained from government to erect an addition to the former galleries; the work was immediately begun, and continued without intermission, but it was not completed till after the death of Buffon.

As the buildings became more extensive, and the objects were disposed in a more striking manner, more value was attached to the collections, and the celebrity of the establishment increased. Individuals offered specimens to the Cabinet, where they were seen inscribed with the name of the donor, in preference to retaining them at home; learned societies eagerly contributed to the progress of knowledge, by enriching a public deposit; and sovereigns, as an agreeable present to the King, sent to his museum duplicates of the curiosities in their own. The Academy of Sciences, for instance, having acquired Hunaud's anatomical collection, added it to that of Duverney in the Garden; the Count D'Angiviller gave Buffon his private cabinet; the missionaries in China sent him

whatever interesting objects they could procure in a country where they alone could penetrate; the King of Poland presented a very considerable collection of minerals; and the Empress of Russia, not being able to induce Buffon to visit St. Petersburgh, invited his son, and on his return presented him with several animals from the North, which were wanting to the Cabinet, and with various objects of natural history collected in her dominions. Meanwhile, the government neglected nothing for the perfec ting of an establishment which did honour to the nation as a repository of light, and a centre of communication. More considerable funds than had before been granted, were placed at the disposal of M. Daubenton, for the purchase of objects interesting from their rarity or their utility to science; foreign trees were transplanted; the Cabinet of Zoology was enriched by the collection of Sonnerat in India, by that of Commerson, made in Bougainville's voyage round the world, and by a part of that brought by Dombey from Peru and Chili, of which half the objects were detained by the Spanish government, who even prevented the publication of his narrative; commissions of correspondence, accompanied by a salary, were also given to learned travellers, who engaged to collect objects for the Botanical Garden and the Cabinet. Nevertheless, it must be owned, that all these collections were not at that moment of much utility, and it is only at a later period, and since the new organization of the establishment, that their importance has been felt, and their end attained. Buffon was not a friend to method; he described the exterior form, the habits and economy of animals, and ascended to the most elevated general views; but he disliked the labour of distinguishing characters, and settling principles of classification. In the arrangement of the Cabinet, he wished to excite curiosity by striking contrasts, so that like his own writings, it should present a picture of the most remarkable things in nature, independent of system, which he regarded as the artifice of man. This manner of considering natural history, was particularly pleasing to a mind that delighted in contemplating the universe of things as a whole; and, indeed, in nature, where all is harmony, the most different beings are placed side by side, and the imagination seizes at once the links which unite, and the characters which separate them. According to Buffon, the end of a general collection was attained, when it captivated the attention, and led the beholder to seek in living nature what was thus imperfectly represented; it was even deemed a useful exercise to separate what related to a peculiar study, from the crowd of objects that surrounded it.

One of the worst consequences of this system was the neglect of whatever was not calculated to interest the public. When a collection arrived, the most remarkable objects were selected to fill the empty spaces, and the rest were preserved in boxes, or allowed to remain in the obscurity of their packing cases. As there