Benoît de Baere
26
natural catastrophes in his theory of the Earth; he does not possess a
general structure – a conceptual framework or a metanarrative – that
would allow him to conceptualize the impact of these unforeseeable,
sudden catastrophic events while at the same time preserving the notion he has of the “order” of nature.
From the middle of the 1760s, however, Buffon started rethinking his theory of the Earth by imposing upon it another metanarrative – that of a systematic cooling – progressively remodelling it
into the “system” that he would later set forth in the Époques de la nature (1778). This reconfiguration of his “geological” thought has its
roots in the works of Dortous de Mairan “qui tendaient à prouver
l’existence actuelle d’une chaleur propre du globe”,
24 as well as in a
series of experiments and calculations undertaken by Buffon in order
to clarify a problem arising from his comparison of Newton’s Principia with the same author’s Optics. Without going into the details of
this problem, suffice it to say that Buffon carried out a series of experiments on cooling which led him, quite naturally it seems, to indulge in some cosmogonical speculation. This manifests itself in his
Mémoire sur le refroidissement des planètes which pre-dates the
Époques by only a few years.
It is well known that in the Époques cooling processes constitute the “motor” of cosmogony. Thus during the first of Buffon’s putative epochs, terrestrial matter (still in a liquid state following its
ejection from the sun) takes the form of a spheroid; in the second epoch, it becomes solid from its surface through to its core. In the third
epoch, the surface of the Earth is sufficiently cooled to accommodate
the waters which had hitherto been suspended in the atmosphere; these
then form a sea which covers the continents “jusqu’à quinze cents
toises au-dessus du niveau de la mer actuelle”.
25 The fourth epoch sees
the collapse, under the weight of the waters, of subterranean caverns
which had themselves been formed by the retreat of a part of the sea
combined with the continued cooling of terrestrial matter. As Gabriel
Gohau has noted, this is also the period when “les continents abritent
___________________________
24 Jacques Roger, “Buffon et l’introduction de l’histoire dans l’Histoire naturelle”, in
Buffon 88, ed. Jean Gayon (Paris: Vrin, 1992), p. 202. For more information, see
Roger’s “Introduction” to his critical edition of the Époques de la nature (Paris:
Éditions du Museum, 1963), p. xxvii.
25 Buffon, “Époques de la nature”, in Supplément à l’Histoire naturelle (Paris:
Imprimerie royale, 1778), V, p. 93.
26
natural catastrophes in his theory of the Earth; he does not possess a
general structure – a conceptual framework or a metanarrative – that
would allow him to conceptualize the impact of these unforeseeable,
sudden catastrophic events while at the same time preserving the notion he has of the “order” of nature.
From the middle of the 1760s, however, Buffon started rethinking his theory of the Earth by imposing upon it another metanarrative – that of a systematic cooling – progressively remodelling it
into the “system” that he would later set forth in the Époques de la nature (1778). This reconfiguration of his “geological” thought has its
roots in the works of Dortous de Mairan “qui tendaient à prouver
l’existence actuelle d’une chaleur propre du globe”,
24 as well as in a
series of experiments and calculations undertaken by Buffon in order
to clarify a problem arising from his comparison of Newton’s Principia with the same author’s Optics. Without going into the details of
this problem, suffice it to say that Buffon carried out a series of experiments on cooling which led him, quite naturally it seems, to indulge in some cosmogonical speculation. This manifests itself in his
Mémoire sur le refroidissement des planètes which pre-dates the
Époques by only a few years.
It is well known that in the Époques cooling processes constitute the “motor” of cosmogony. Thus during the first of Buffon’s putative epochs, terrestrial matter (still in a liquid state following its
ejection from the sun) takes the form of a spheroid; in the second epoch, it becomes solid from its surface through to its core. In the third
epoch, the surface of the Earth is sufficiently cooled to accommodate
the waters which had hitherto been suspended in the atmosphere; these
then form a sea which covers the continents “jusqu’à quinze cents
toises au-dessus du niveau de la mer actuelle”.
25 The fourth epoch sees
the collapse, under the weight of the waters, of subterranean caverns
which had themselves been formed by the retreat of a part of the sea
combined with the continued cooling of terrestrial matter. As Gabriel
Gohau has noted, this is also the period when “les continents abritent
___________________________
24 Jacques Roger, “Buffon et l’introduction de l’histoire dans l’Histoire naturelle”, in
Buffon 88, ed. Jean Gayon (Paris: Vrin, 1992), p. 202. For more information, see
Roger’s “Introduction” to his critical edition of the Époques de la nature (Paris:
Éditions du Museum, 1963), p. xxvii.
25 Buffon, “Époques de la nature”, in Supplément à l’Histoire naturelle (Paris:
Imprimerie royale, 1778), V, p. 93.