Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

“ Whence can arise the uniformity that is in all the works of animals? Why does each species invariably perform the same actions in the same manner? And why does not one individual perform them better or worse than another? Can there be a stronger proof that their operations are merely the effects of mechanism and materiality? If they possessed the smallest spark of that light which is inherent in mankind, their works would display variety at least, if not perfection, and one individual would, in its performance, make some little difference from what another had done. ”

“ That if we cannot conceive this infinite chain of individuals contained in one, it is the fault of our minds, the weakness of which is every day perceptible; but it is, upon that account, no less true, that every animal which has been, is, and will be, were created all at one time, and inclosed in the first females. The resemblance of children to parents only proceeds, continues he, from the imagination of the mother, the power of which is so great on the fœtus that it can produce on it spots, marks, disproportions, and extraordinary births, as well as perfect resemblances. ”

“ Let us not disdain to consider that state through which we have all passed; let us view human kind in the cradle; let us enquire by what degrees this delicate machine, this new-born and hardly existing body, acquires motion, consistency, and strength. ”

“ A blind man has no idea of those objects, which sight represents to us; a leper, whose skin has lost the sense of feeling, is denied all the ideas which arise from the touch; and a deaf [324] man has no knowledge of sounds. Let these three modes of sensation be successively destroyed, yet the mind will exist, its external functions will subsist, and thought will still manifest it within the man so deprived. But divest matter of all its qualities; strip it of colour, of solidity, and of every other property which has any relation to our senses, and the consequence will be its annihilation. ”

“ The general idea, therefore, expressed by the word animal, must comprehend a number of particular ideas, not one of which constitutes the essence of the general idea, for there are animals which appear to have no reason, will, progressive motion, flesh nor blood, and which only appear to be a congealed substance: there are some which cannot seek their food, but only receive it from the element they live in: there are some which have no sensation, not even that of feeling, at least in any sensible degree: there are some have no sexes, or are both in one ”

“ Why, on the other hand, are the productions and performances of men so various, and so diversified? Why is a servile imitation more troublesome to us than an original design? It is because our souls are our own, and independent of any other, and because we have nothing [332] in common with our species but the matter which forms our body, and in which our resemblance to brute animals is confined. ”

“ As the mind wills and commands, so the body obeys in every thing within its power. The mind forms, at pleasure, an intimate union with any object; neither distance, magnitude, nor figure, can obstruct this union, when the mind wills it, it is effected in an instant. The body can form no union; whatever touches it too closely injures it; it requires a long time in order to approach another body; it every where meets with resistance, and obstacles, and from the smallest shock its motion ceases. ”

“ It appears difficult to conceive that animals can exist, from the moment of their birth till that of their death, in a continual rapid motion without the least interval of rest; and I cannot possibly imagine how these animals in the semen of a dog, which Leeuwenhoek saw the seventh day in as rapid motion as they were when they were first taken from the body of the animal, preserved a motion during that time so exceedingly swift, that no animal has sufficient power to move in for an hour; especially if we consider the resistance which proceeds from the density and the tenacity of the liquor. ”

“ When the quantity of particles is still greater, as in insects, it first forms a large organic body, which, though retaining the essential constitution of its original, differs in many parts, as the butterfly from the caterpillar, but shortly produces an astonishing number of young, similar in form to the animal which selected the nutriment. When the superabundance is greater still, and when at the same time the animal has the necessary organs for generation, as the vine-fretter, it immediately produces a generation in every individual, and afterwards a transformation, like other insects. ”

“ If to the idea of the word sex, we give all the extent here supposed, we shall say, that sexes are found throughout all nature; for then sex will mean only the parts which furnish the organic particles, different from the common particles, and which must serve as a fixed point for their union. But, enough of reasoning on a question that can be at once resolved, by saying, that God having created sexes, it necessarily follows that animals should reproduce by their connection. ”

“ Is it possible to have a conception of motion without having a conception of space and time? Will, therefore, if it be a motion, is not a material one; and if the union of the mind with its object be a contact, it is effected at a distance: and is not this contact a penetration? qualities which are absolutely opposite to those of matter, and which of consequence can only belong to the immaterial being. ”

“ By the inspection of this skeleton, it appeared evident that the bones had been broken during the time it was in the womb, and that afterwards the bones re-united, and formed these callosities.
But enough of a subject which credulity alone has rendered marvellous. Prejudice, especially that sort which is founded on the marvellous, will always triumph over reason, and we should have but little philosophy if we were astonished at it. We must not therefore ever expect to be able to persuade women, that the marks on their children have no connection with their unsatisfied longings. ”

“ The more distant it is from the formation, the more in proportion are its parts, and it is only after it has quitted the womb of its mother that the growth of the parts is made in nearly an equal manner. It must not be imagined that the figure of the fœtus, at the moment of formation, is absolutely like that of an adult. It is certain that the embryo contains every part which, must compose a man, but they differ in their successive expansion. ”

“ Instead of undertaking to explain the causes of the alternate motion of respiration, we shall confine ourselves to an elucidation of its effects. This function is essential to the existence of man and of several species of animals. It is by respiration that life is preserved; and when it is once begun, it never ceases till death. Yet there is reason to believe that the foramen ovale is not closed immediately after the birth; and of consequence a part of the blood may continue to pass through that aperture. All the blood cannot, therefore, at first have a communication with the lungs ”

“ That something exists without us, we may believe, though not with a positive assurance; whereas of the real existence of every thing within us, we have a certainty. That of our soul, therefore, is incontestable, and that of our body seems doubtful; because the mind has one mode of perception when we are awake, and another when we are asleep; after death, it will perceive by a method still more different, and the objects of its sensations, or matter in general, may then cease to exist with respect to [323] it, as well as our bodies with which we have no further connection. ”

“ Instead also of being existing bodies, inclosed, ad infinitum, one within the other, eggs, on the contrary, are bodies formed from the superfluity of a more gross and less organic part of the food, than that which produces the seminal and prolific liquor; and are in oviparous females something equivalent, not only to the matrix, but even to the menstrua in the viviparous.
We should be perfectly convinced, that eggs are only destined by Nature to serve as a matrix in animals who have not that viscera, by those females producing eggs independant of the male. ”

“ We are assured by the experiments and observations we have made, that every living being contains a great quantity of living and active molecules. The life of the animal or vegetable appears to be only the result of all the young lives (if that expression is permitted me) of each of these active molecules, whose life is primitive, and appears impossible to be destroyed. We have found these living molecules in every living or vegetating being, and are assured, that they are alike necessary for nutrition, and consequently, for the reproduction of animals or vegetables. ”

“ All what immediately relates to the position, is beyond our mathematical sciences. This art, which Leibnitz calls Analysis Situs, is not yet found out; though the art, which would shew us the connections that result from the position of things, would perhaps be more useful than that which has only bulk for its object, for we have often more need to know the form than the matter.
In the unfolding of Nature's productions, not only the folded parts take new positions, but they acquire, at the same time, extent and solidity. ”

“ We are not in a state of explaining why Nature, almost throughout her works, makes use of sexes for the reproduction of animals, or why sexes exist; we ought, therefore, to content ourselves with reasoning on what is, on things as they are, since we cannot go beyond, by forming suppositions which will remove us from the sphere we ought to contain ourselves in, and to which the small extent of our knowledge is limited. ”

“ And as there is no medium between the positive and the negative, [334] between the rational and irrational being, it is evident that man is of a nature entirely different from that of the animal; that all the resemblance he bears to it is merely external; and that to judge of him by this resemblance, is wilfully to shut our eyes against that light, by which we ought to distinguish truth from falsehood. ”

“ I find, that the reproduction of beings is formed in [243] many different manners; but, at the same time, I clearly perceive, that it is by the union of the organic particles sent back from every part of the individual, that the reproduction of vegetables and animals are effected. I am certain of the existence of these organic and active molecules in the seminal liquors of male and female animals and seed of vegetables; and cannot doubt but every species of reproduction is accomplished by the union of these organic molecules. ”

“ Enough has been here advanced to demonstrate the excellence of our nature, and of the immense distance which the bounty of the Creator has placed between man and the brute. The former is a rational being, the latter a being devoid of reason. ”

“ But let us admit this existence of matter; and that it even exists as it appears to our senses, yet by comparing the mind with any material object, we shall find differences so great, and qualities so opposite that every doubt will vanish of the latter being of a nature totally different, and infinitely superior. ”

“ There is, therefore, an infinite variety in animals, with respect to the time and manner of gestation, engendering, and bringing forth; and this variety is found even in the causes of generation; for although the general principle of production is this organic matter common to all that lives or vegetates, the manner in which the union is made, must have infinite combinations, which must all proceed from the source of new productions. ”

“ But what must contribute to the long duration of their life is, that their bones are softer than those of other animals, and do not harden with age. The bones of fish lengthen, and grow thick without taking any more solidity; whereas the bones of other animals continually increase in hardness and density, until at length, being absolutely full, the motion of their fluid ceases, and death ensues. In their bones the repletion or obstruction, which is the cause of natural death, is formed by such slow and insensible degrees, that fish must require much time to arrive at what we call old age. ”

“ In comparing man with the animal we find in both an organized body, senses, flesh, blood, motion, and a multitude of other resemblances. But these resemblances are all external, and not sufficient to justify a decision, that the human and the animal natures are similar. ”