#comte de buffon

Unlike his contemporary Carl Linnaeus, who believed that nature was static and every species had stayed exactly as God created them, Buffon believed nature was too complex and changeable to be easily categorised.

He was even concerned about the impact of human-caused climate change. “Buffon had enemies, because his message – that nature cannot be conquered, that humans were, in fact, part of nature – was essentially disconcerting to other people.”

About Illustrator Félix Lorioux

Les Deux Nigauds par la Comtesse de Ségur, illustrations Félix Lorioux. (Pinterest) —ooo— The cover of La Comtesse de Ségur’s Les Deux Nigauds (The Two Silly Kids) is shown above, illustrated by Félix Loriaux. It has been on my bookshelves for about 70 years. It is a book intended for children written by La Comtesse de Ségur (1 August 1799 – 8 February 1874). La Comtesse de Ségur was Russian by…

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…

Thomas Jefferson to John Manners, 22 February 1814