George Louis Leclerc de Buffon was born on September 7th, 1707, at Montbard, in Burgundy. He came of good family, and his father was councillor of the Burgundian parliament. His mother, Anne Christine Mazlin, appears to have possessed considerable natural gifts. She was also of good family, and was remarkable, in those days, for the elevation of her mind and strength of character. She was a better parent than the father who, although he was looked upon as a wonder in his province, in consequence of his wasteful living and devotion to feasts, balls, and concerts, was really only a person of average merit. The mother was tenderly loved by her son, but the father gave him some trouble in after years, on account of his follies. Nevertheless, it adds to the interest and good example of Buffon’s character to learn that he did not care to follow the agreeable life of his father, but that he broke away from it and took to wisdom, although having great property, he always lived and behaved like a nobleman of wealth and mental distinction. Buffon was the oldest of five children, and the rest were devoted by the parents to the priesthood, or to nunneries; so it would appear that the father not only followed the rule of the day, to keep the property in the hands of the eldest son, but to provide for the others in the cheapest possible manner. The young noble was in due course sent to a school at Dijon kept by Jesuit fathers, the best instructors in those days; and report says that the boy was fond of arithmetic and had a character for decision and perseverance. After a while Buffon was entered at the academy of Angers, it being decided that the boy should follow his father as a magistrate and public man. There his love of study became evident, and his application was considerable. One of his associates was a young English nobleman, Lord Kingston, and they became great friends, and probably this friendship was caused and fostered by his lordship’s German tutor, Hinckman, who was a man of considerable learning. When he was nineteen years of age the three friends started for a tour in Italy. Returning to Angers to resume his studies, Buffon became a little wild, and got into a quarrel with a young Englishman at play. Buffon wounded his antagonist and had to leave the town. He went to Paris, but not to waste time; on the contrary, his former love of figures, and his later studies in mathematics, inspired him to translate Newton’s “Fluxions” into French, and also Hale’s “Vegetable Statics,” which subsequently he presented to the Academy of Sciences. Still keeping up his friendship with Lord Kingston, Buffon visited Italy again; and there is no doubt that Hinckman instilled the love of nature into the young man’s mind. They were all at Rome in 1732, when Buffon heard of the death of his mother, who was greatly mourned by him. He was then twenty-five years of age, and became very wealthy, as he was his mother’s heir. Journeying in