Buffon, of a vigorous frame and imposing appearance, of an imperious disposition, and ardent in all he undertook, seemed to have divined the truth and not to have observed it. His imagination continually placed itself between nature and himself, and hie eloquence seemed to exercise itself against his reason, before having endeavoured to sway that of others.

Daubenton, of a frail temperament and mild look, and a moderation which he owed to Nature as much as to his own wisdom, conducted his researches with the most scrupulous circumspection. He believed nothing, he affirmed nothing, but what he had seen and touched.

Far from wishing to persuade by other means than the evidence itself, he carefully excluded from his discourses and writings every image and expression calculated to seduce. Of unwearied patience, he never allowed himself to be discouraged by delay; he recommenced the same task till he had succeeded to his mind; and, by a method perhaps too rare among men occupied with science of observation, all the resources of his mind seemed to be united in imposing silence on his imagination.

Buffon supposed that he had merely obtained a laborious assistant, who would smooth for him the inequalities of his path; and he had found a faithful guide, who pointed out to him the dangers and precipices. A hundred times, the arch smile which escaped from his friend, when he entertained some doubt, caused him to revert to his first ideas; a hundred times, one of the words which that friend knew so well how to throw in, arrested him in his precipitate progress; and the sagacity of the one becoming thus allied to the strength of the other, tended to give to the history of quadrupeds, the only one that was common to the two authors, the perfection which renders it, if not the most interesting of those which enter into Buffon's great Natural History, at least that which is freest from errors, and which will be longest regarded as classical by naturalists.

It is, therefore, even less by what he did for him, than by what he prevented him doing, that Daubenton was useful to Buffon, and that the latter ought to have been so thankful for having formed the connection.

It was about the year 1742 that Buffon took him to Paris. The situation of Curator and Demonstrator in the Cabinet of Natural History was almost a sinecure; the individual who possessed the title, named Moguez, having lived for a long time in the country; and the duties, such as they were, were fulfilled from time to time by some one attached to the Garden. Buffon caused this office to be revived for Daubenton, and it was conferred on him by brevet in 1745. The emoluments, which at first did not exceed 500 francs, were gradually increased to 4000 francs. When he became connected with the Academy of Sciences, Buffon, who was treasurer, made him several gratuities. From the time of his arrival in Paris, he likewise provided him with a place of residence. In a word, he neglected nothing to provide for him that ease which is necessary for every man of letters, and every one who wishes to occupy himself with nothing but science.

Daubenton, on his part, devoted himself, without interruption, to investigations fitted to second the views of his benefactor, and he erected, by means of these labours, the two principal monuments of his own glory.

One of the two, although not a printed book, is a book not less beautiful than instructive, since it is almost that of Nature; I speak of the Cabinet of Natural History in the Jardin des Plantes. Before Daubenton's time, this was nothing else than a mere druggist's shop, where the products of the public courses of chemistry were collected, in order that they might be distributed to the sick poor. In natural history, properly so called, it contained only a few shells collected by Tournefort, which had served to amuse the early years of Louis XV., many of them still bearing marks of the royal infant's caprice.

In a very few years he changed the entire face of it. Minerals, fruits, woods, and shells, were collected from every quarter, and exposed in the most beautiful order. Every thing was done to discover, or to bring to perfection, the means by which the different parts of organised bodies might be preserved; the lifeless skins of quadrupeds and birds reassumed the appearances of life, and presented to the observer the smallest details of their characters, at the same time that they astonished the curious by the variety of their forms, and the brilliancy of their colours.

Formerly, a few wealthy individuals ornamented their cabinets with the productions of Nature ; but they excluded from them such as might impair their beauty, or deprive them of the appearance of decoration. Some savants had collected the objects which might assist their researches, or support their opinions; but limited in their fortunes, they were obliged to work for a long time before completing even an insulated department. A few curious individuals had assembled a series of objects which satisfied their tastes; but they usually contented themselves with things of the most trifling nature, more fitted to please the eye than to enlighten the mind. The most brilliant shells, the most varied pebbles, the bast cut and most brilliant gems, usually formed the main body of their collections.

Daubenton, aided by Buffon, and profiting by the means which the credit of his friend obtained for him from the Government, conceived and executed a more extensive plan. He thought that none of the productions of Nature should be excluded from her temple. He conceived, that such of these productions as we regard as the most important, cannot be well known but by comparing them with all others; that there are none of them, which, by their numerous relations, are not connected more or less directly with the rest of Nature. He therefore excluded none, and made the greatest efforts to collect all. He executed, in particular, that great number of anatomical preparations which for a long time distinguished the Cabinet of Paris, and which, though less agreeable to the vulgar eye, are most useful to the man who will not limit his researches to the surface of created beings, and who endeavours to render natural history a philosophical science, by making it explain the phenomena it describes.