Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/382

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XL MAY 9, igos.

There may be much matter for discussion as to the truth or meaning of the sentence, but at present our only question is what is its exact source. Now, for a very long time I had been trying to find this out, and at last, having no further clue than that Buffon was the author, I almost began to despair. Then some one informed me that it ^was taken from his 'Discours sur le Style.' I immediately procured this, and carefully read every word (it is not very long), satisfy- ing myself that it was not there. Strangely enough, though, the edition I procured (pub- lished by Hachette & Cie.) quoted the phrase in an introductory notice, but without any indication as to where it was to be found. The question was also raised in a French work on quotations, in which the author confessed that he had been unable to trace the sentence. My despair became accentuated, and I could only wait for some lucky chance. One day at the British Museum I happened to notice in the Cata- logue, under D'Israeli's name, the title of a book by Bolton Corney, ' Curiosities of Literature Illustrated,' and being curious to know something about the discussion that seemed to have taken place, I consulted the work. I had not turned over many pages before I met the well -known phrase, and what is more, a foot-note with a reference to a work by Herault de Sechelles, entitled 'Voyage a Montbar,' published in 1801, and descriptive of a visit paid by the author to Buffon in 1785.* To obtain the book was the work of a few minutes, and I grew quite excited as I turned to the page indicated (p. 15). But there was no mistake this time : there it was ; and this is how it was intro- duced. I quote at some length, because, in a measure, some light is thrown on the meaning of the phrase at all events, as understood by M. de Sechelles :

"Son exemple et ses disoours m'ont confirme", que qui veut la gloire passionne"ment, finit par 1'obtenir, ou du moins en approche de bien pres. Mais il faut vouloir, et non pas une fois ; il faut voulpir tous les jours. J'ai oui-dire qu'un homme qui a 6te" marechal de France et grand general, se pro- menait tous les matins up quart-d'heure dans sa chambre, et qu'il eniployait ce terns a se dire a lui- meme : ' je veux etre mare'chal de France et grand gene>al.'t M. de Buffon me dit a ce sujet un mot bien frappant, un de ces mots capable de produire un homme tout entier : ' Le gnie n'est qu'une plus grande aptitude ii, la patience.' 11 suffit en effet d'avoir recu cette qualite" de la nature : avec elle on regarde long-terns les objets, et Ton parvient a les p^netrer."


 * Buffon died 1788.

t "Ne serait-ce pas M. de Belle-Isle?" Note by the editor.

Here, as far as I have been able to ascertain, are the exact phrase and its exact source, and, apparently, there is a very good reason for no one having been able to find it in any of Buffon's works it is not there.*

Emerson, in his essay on ' Quotation and Originality,' says :

" Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it."

And, until proved otherwise, to HeYault de Se'chelles belongs the honour in the present instance, for, although Madame de Stae'l appears to have visited the great naturalist at a date earlier than 1785, yet I do not find that she herself records the phrase. Mr. Stevens, as has been said, mentions the phrase in his book as " Genius is only patience," but does not state that it was quoted by Madame de Stae'l. If M. de Sechelles had not placed it on record for future generations (as Buffon only appears to have said and not written it) the famous sentence would have been lost to posterity. As it is, the words were buried for a time. Bolton Corney, on this side of the Channel, disinterred it ; by a mere chance being on the look-out I happened to dig it up once more, and now the information is in the broad daylight afforded by the pages of ' N. & Q.' As they say in the obituary an- nouncements in the daily papers, ''Foreign and colonial papers, please copy."

I may add that Sechelles's book was re- printed in 1890 in the series of lk Les Chefs- d'oeuvre Inconnus" (7, Rue de Lille, Paris).

Since writing the above I have met with the following in I. D'Israeli's essay on * Quo- tation ':

"And Bayle, perhaps too much prepossessed in their favour, has insinuated, that there is not less invention in a just and happy application of a thought found in a book, than in being the first author of that thought."

Did he refer to Bayle's remark as to Sanchez (Thomas) :

" Parmi tous ces grans e"loges il n'y en a guere qui lui fasse plus d'honneur, que celui qui se rapporte k 1'exactitude de citer. C'est un talent beaucoup plus rare que Ton ne pense " ; or otherwise? EDWARD LATHAM.

61, Friends' Road, East Croydon.

[5 th S. xii. 97 and 7 th S. in. 84 refer to Carlyle's 'Frederick the Great,' vol. i. p. 407, as containing the expression, "It is the fruit of ' genius' (which means transcendent capacity of taking infinite trouble first of all)," &c.]

THE LAST OF THE PRE-VICTORIAN M.P.s (9 th S. ix. 226, 333, 378 ; xi. 255). John Temple

mation that may be forthcoming on the point.
 * This is, of course, subject to any further infor-