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 BUFFON

BURBANK

Ed. Zuera Institute and Madrid University. He made various scientific expeditions in Europe and Africa, and was in 1886 appointed naturalist on the scientific ex ploration of the Blanca. He then received a chair at Barcelona University, from which the clericals ejected him in 1895, but he recovered it. Professor de Buen is one of the most distinguished men of science and most outspoken Eationalists of Spain. One of his numerous works is on the Index, and he contributes frequently to Las Dominicales del Libre Pensamiento and warmly supports the International Freethought Congresses. He is an Agnostic.

BUFFON, Count Georges Louis Leclerc de, French naturalist. B. Sep. 7, 1707. Ed. Dijon. Buffon, on completing his studies, travelled over the Continent with the Duke of Kingston and accom panied him to London, where he obtained a good command of English. In 1739 he was appointed Director of the Jardin des Plantes, and he devoted his time to laborious studies of history, physics, and mathematics. The first volume of his celebrated Natural History (an encyclo paedia of the science of his time) was published in 1749, and during the next thirty-four years he produced twenty-three further volumes. The work includes his famous evolutionary Theory of the Earth, which develops Descartes s theory of the origin of the sun and planets and leads on to that of Laplace. In 1751 he was com pelled by the Catholic authorities to with draw certain anti-scriptural passages, but the &quot; retraction&quot; was merely a forced con cession to ecclesiastical tyranny. Herault de Sechelles afterwards visited Buffon, and describes his sentiments in his little-known work, Voyage a Montbar. Buffon said to him : I have everywhere mentioned the Creator, but you have only to omit the word and put naturally in its place the power of nature &quot; (p. 36). He also rejected the belief in immortality. But, living in a tyrannical age and holding an official position, he conformed outwardly with the

Church s requirements. D. Apr. 16, 1788.

B U I S S N, Professor Ferdinand Edouard, D. es L., French educationist. B. Dec. 20, 1841. Ed. College d Argentan, Lycee de St. Etienne, and Lycee Condorcet. As Director of Primary Instruction and Minister of Public Instruction (1879-96) Professor Buisson was one of the foremost workers in the laicization of the French schools. He is professor of the science of Education at the Sorbonne, commander of the Legion of Honour, and deputy for the Seine. His various works on religion (besides many on education) have been violently attacked by both Catholics and Protestants, since he rejects both creeds (La religion, la morale, et la science, 1900), though he pleads for religion in an idealist sense.

BULLER, Charles, B.A., politician. B. Aug. 6, 1806. Ed. Harrow and Cam bridge (Trinity College). He had to leave Harrow prematurely on account of his health, and for some time Carlyle was his tutor. He took to law and politics (1830), and became a brilliant debater and parlia mentarian. With J. Mill, Grote, and Molesworth, he strongly supported the reform party, and he was prominent at the London Debating Society. Jowett (Life and Letters, i, 433) quotes him saying : &quot;Destroy the Church of England, sir! Why, you must be mad. It is the one thing which stands between us and real religion.&quot; In 1838 he accompanied Lord Durham to Canada, and was the chief author of Durham s report. In 1846 he became judge-advocate-general, in 1847 a Poor Law Commissioner. An exception ally gifted man of high character, he described &quot; doing good &quot; as the aim of his life, but he died prematurely. D. Nov. 29, 1848.

BURBANK, Luther, Sc.D., American

horticulturist. B. Mar. 7, 1849. Ed.

Lancaster Academy. Burbank spent his

early years on a farm, and he attracted

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