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Buffon and Rousseau: Aspects of a Relationship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Otis Fellows
Otis Fellows*
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York 27, N.Y.
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Extract

It seems safe to say that no writer of the French Enlightenment, with the possible exception of Voltaire, has received so much attention as that strangely paradoxical genius Jean-Jacques Rousseau. We know he was born in Switzerland of French blood, was largely self-taught, and made his vagabond way across eighteenth-century France, leaving in his wake a considerable number of works, the best known of which were all highly incandescent: the two Discourses, Lettre sur les spectacles, La Nouvelle Héloïse, Le Contrat social, Emile, and the Confessions.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 75 , Issue 3 , June 1960 , pp. 184 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1960

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References

1 Joseph-Adrien Lelarge de Lignac, Lettres à un Américain sur l‘“Histoire naturelle générale et particulière” de M. de Buffon (Hambourg, 1751), ii, 414.

2 An early and little known exception is H. Piguet, “De Buffon et de Jean-Jacques Rousseau,” in Melanges de litterature (Lausanne, 1816), pp. 259–280.

3 Cf. Ch. Barthelemy, “La Religion de Buffon,” in Erreurs et mensonges historiques (Paris, 1877), p. 94.

4 Correspondance generate de J.-J. Rousseau, ed. Theophile Dufour and Pierre-Paul Plan (Paris, 1924–34), 20 vols. Hereafter the letters “C.G.” in the text will be used in referring to this work. References to other writings of Rousseau have been drawn from the Hachette edition of the CEuvres completes, which will be designated by the letter “H.”

5 The above account has been pieced together almost entirely from Le Progres de la Cote d'Or, “Le Bi-Centenaire de J.-J. Rousseau a Montbard” (12 juillet 1912); Le Temps, “Les Manuscrits de J.-J. Rousseau et l'Academie de Dijon” (13 juillet 1912); LeRadical, “Rousseau et Buffon, les deux manuscrits de l'Academie de Dijon” (15 juillet 1912); Les Droits de Vhomme, “Le ‘Lanceur’ de J.-J. Rousseau” (21 juillet 1912); La Depeche, Toulouse, “Le ‘lanceur’ de J.-J. Rousseau” (21 juillet 1912); Revue de Bourgogne, “Buffon et le prix J.-J. Rousseau a l'Academie de Dijon,” 1912, t. II, pp. 304–306; Hippolyte Buffenoir, “Les Manuscrits de J.-J. Rousseau et l'Academie de Dijon,” Journal des Dibats, (31 juillet 1912); Hippolyte Buffenoir, “Jean-Jacques Rousseau a Dijon et a Montbard du 10 au 17 juin 1770,” Memoires de l'Academie des sciences, arts et belles-lettres de Dijon, Janvier 1923, pp. 15–20.

6 Henri Nadault de Buffon, ed., Correspondance inedite de Buffon (Paris, 1860), I, 220; twenty-five years later, in a revised and enlarged edition of his ancestor's correspondence, Nadault de Buffon compounded instead of rectifying the error. In fact, he expanded his remarks by categorically stating that Buffon had voted for both of Rousseau's Discourses in the prize competitions of the Dijon Academy: J.-L. Lanessan, ed., CEuvres completes de Buffon (Paris, 1884–85), xiii, 28. It is most unlikely, however, that this comparatively unknown text was responsible for the legend which sprang up during the bicentennial year of 1912.

7 Alexandre Choulguine, “Les Origines de l'esprit national moderne et Jean-Jacques Rousseau,” Annates de la Societe Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1937), xxvi, 88.

8 La Pensee europeenne au XVIIIe siecle; de Montesquieu d Lessing (Paris, 1946), I, 189.

9 George R. Havens, ed., Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Discours sur les Sciences et les Arts (New York, 1946), p. 177.

10 Rousseau then proceeds to quote the entire opening paragraph of Buffon's anthropology, Histoire naturelle de Phomme. Here, by way of introduction to his subject, the naturalist advises that it is within himself that man must seek, discover, and finally understand his true nature (Flourens, ii, 1). CEuvres completes de Buff on (avec la nomenclature linne'enne et la classification de Cuvier) revues sur I'edition in-4° de l'Imprimerie Royale et annolees par M. Flourens (Paris, 1853–55) will be the source of reference in the Histoire naturelle, as it is far more readily available than the comparatively rare Editio Princeps; the Flourens edition will hereafter be referred to as “F.”

11 Among the references in the Correspondance ginerale to procurement of volumes or plates of the Histoire naturelle are the following: v, 545; ix, 161; x, 317; xi, 1, 15, 36, 83, 148, 151, 169, 178, 184, 250; xiii, 345; xv, 173; xx, 95.

12 “Un de mes regrets est de n'avoir pas ete a portee de le voir davantage et de profiter de ses obligeantes invitations; je sens combien ma tete et mes ecrits auroient gagne dans son commerce” (C.G., xi, 25).

13 Buffon depicts the lion as cruel through necessity, whereas, “Le tigre… quoique rassasie de chair, semble toujours etre altere de sang; sa fureur n'a d'autres intervalles que ceux du temps qu'il faut pour dresser des embuches; il saisit et dechire une nouvelle proie avec la meme rage qu'il vient d'e-xercer, et non pas d'assouvir, en devorant la premiere;… II n'a pour tout instinct qu'une rage constante, une fureur aveugle qui ne connait, qui ne distingue rien” (F., iii, 55).

14 Herault de Sechelles claims to have had this story—already so well-known in the eighteenth century—verified by Buffon himself: Voyage a Monbar [sic] (Paris, an X), p. 15.

15 Nouveaux Melanges, extraits des manuscrits de Mme Necker (Paris, an X), I, 164.

16 Herault de Sechelles, p. 27.

17 Furthermore, as Buffon states in the foreword to the sixth volume (1756) of the Histoire naturelle, the first volume was printed in 1746 and the second in 1747, though their date of publication was held up to coincide with volume three in 1749. There should therefore have been ample opportunity for many persons to become well acquainted with the contents of the first two volumes considerably in advance of their official appearance.

18 Nor has anyone expressed this rapport between the ideas of Buffon and those of Jean-Jacques Rousseau on the subject more succinctly than Gustave Lanson. Without mentioning by name any work of Rousseau, Lanson writes: “A Buffon, qu'il admira toujours profondement, il a demande les notions capables de preciser, de soutenir son hypothese de l'homme naturel, et l'idee de la lente evolution par laquelle l'univers et les etres qu'il porte se transforment.” Histoire de la litterature francaise, 12th ed. (Paris, 1912), p. 787.

19 See footnote 10.

20 Annates de la Société J. J. Rousseau, 1909, pp. 179 ff.

21 Alfred Giard, Controverses transformistes (Paris, 1904), p. 19. This theory is further developed by Edmond Perrier in Lamarck (Paris, 1925), pp. 21–22, where we are told that Darwin could indeed have been inspired by the Discours sur Vinigaliti. More prudent, Arthur O. Lovejoy prefers to consider Rousseau as an evolutionist in the anthropological and sociological sense rather than in the biological. See his “Monboddo and Rousseau,” Essays in the History of Ideas (Baltimore, 1948), pp. 40 and 51.

22 Of the Origin and Progress of Language, 2nd ed. (Edinburgh, 1774), i, 290.

23 Monboddo's thesis of conflicting views between Buffon and Rousseau has been elaborated on competently by Professor Lovejoy in his “Monboddo and Rousseau,” and especially by Professor Hester Hastings in Man and Beast in French Thought of the Eighteenth Century (Baltimore, 1936), pp. 113–132. Curiously enough, both studies completely ignore a work which, in its own way, is as important to the topic the writers are treating as is Edward Tyson's Orangoutang, she Homo Syhestris (1699). I am referring to Benoit de Maillet's far more imaginative, though much less scientific work, Telliamed ou entreliens d'un philosophe indien avec un missionnaire francois sur la diminution de la mer, la formation de la terre, I'origine de I'homme, etc. Mis en ordre sur les mtmoires de feu M. de… Par J. A. Guer, Avocat (Amsterdam, 1748); see especially n, 171–183. A selective bibliography on Buffon's theory of evolution would be too long to enumerate here. However, an early and still valuable study is Arthur O. Lovejoy's “Buffon and the Problem of Species,” Popular Science Monthly, LXXIX (1911), 464–473 and 554–567. Two of the most important contributions to the debate in recent years are Paul Ostoya's Les Theories de revolution (Paris, 1951), pp. 47–57, and J. B. Wilkie's thoughtful article, “The Idea of Evolution in the Writings of Buffon,” Annals of Science, XII (1956), 48–62, 212–227, 255–266. Finally, attention might profitably be drawn to Lester Crocker's chapter, “Diderot and Eighteenth-Century French Trans-formism,” in The Forerunners of Darwin, ed. Bentley Glass (Baltimore, 1959).

24 CEuvres completes, Assezat-Tourneux (Paris, 1875–77), Pensees sur I'interpretation de la nature, II, 57–58.

25 Correspondance inedite de Buffon, ii, 68. Professor Jean Piveteau prefers to believe that Buffon's reference to revelation is entirely sincere (CEuvres philosophiques de Buffon, Paris, 1954, p. 355). Letters of Buffon throughout his career, however, show his ability to dissimulate, in the face of religious authoritarianism. In a letter to a friend, written in 1750, we find him confessing that he has made every effort to write in a style which would free him from what he called “les tracasseries theologiques.” And a recently discovered letter pictures him as early as 1739 advising another friend to “prendre partout le ton ironique” in an essay which, if published undisguised, might cause its author serious difficulties. See Franck Bourdier and Yves Francois, “Lettres inedites de Buffon,” in Buffon, ed., Roger Heim (Paris, 1952), p. 186.

26 The most cursory reading of the Pensees reveals the extent of Diderot's debt to Buffon. Professor Aram Vartanian informs me that he plans to study this relation between Buffon and Diderot, a subject hardly yet touched upon.

27 Buffon, p. 10.

28 “Principaux aspects de la vie et de l'ceuvre de Buffon,” in Buffon, p. 27. The second part of M. Bourdier's statement is, however, open to question. He has overlooked Nicolas Venette's Tableau de Vamour dans I'etat du mariage (Amsterdam, 1687), also known as De laG&ne'ration del'homme. This fascinating little work enjoyed 71 editions under the ancien regime, and was first called to my attention by Professors Gilbert Chinard and Jacques Roger. It manifestly prepared prospective readers of the Histoire naturelle for further analysis of “ces delicats sujets.” Moreover, from internal evidence it seems most likely that Buffon, though not Rousseau, was thoroughly acquainted with Venette's quite remarkable manual on sex.

29 Andre Ravier, L'Education de I'homme nouveau; essai historique et critique sur le lime de I'Emile de J.-J. Rousseau (Lyon, 1941), 2 vols.

30 Essai sur les regnes de Claude et de Neron, iii, 95.

31 Cauteries du lundi (Paris, n.d.), iv, 348.

32 CEuvres completes, ed., Y. G. Le Dantec (Paris, 1954), p. 358.

33 From the Greeks to Darwin (New York, 1894), p. 138.

34 The History of Biology (New York, 1936), pp. 228–229.

35 Buffon, op. cit, p. 11.