
The aristocratic French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon chose a good year to die: 1788. Reflecting his status as a star of the Enlightenment and author of 35 popular volumes on natural history, Buffon’s funeral carriage drawn by 14 horses was watched by an estimated 20,000 mourners as it processed through Paris. A grateful Louis XVI had earlier erected a statue of a heroic Buffon in the Jardin du Roi, over which the naturalist had masterfully presided. “All nature bows to his genius,” the inscription read.
法國貴族、博學多才的布馮伯爵喬治-路易?勒克萊爾(Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon)選擇了一個好年份去世:1788年。作為啟蒙運動的明星和35卷自然歷史暢銷書的作者,布馮的葬禮車由14匹馬拉著,在巴黎游行時,大約有2萬名哀悼者觀看。感激的路易十六(Louis XVI)早些時候在國王花園豎立了一座布馮的英雄雕像,這位自然學家曾在這里出色地主持工作。碑文上寫道:“所有的自然都向他的天才致敬。”