To Benjamin Franklin from the Comte de Buffon, 2 November 1777
From the Comte de Buffon1
AL: American Philosophical Society
Au Jardin du Roi ce 2. 9bre. 1777
M. de Buffon fait trop de cas des occasions de voir Monsieur franklin pour manquer celle qu’il a la bonté de lui offrir: il aura donc l’honneur de se rendre jeudy avant deux heures à Passy et il lui fait en attendant mille complimens et à Monsieur son fils.
1. Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon, needs no introduction. The great naturalist had expressed his chagrin at missing BF when the latter visited Paris ten years before: above, XV, 141–2. We have no evidence of when they met after BF’s return, but the opening of this note suggests that they had already seen each other a number of times. One of Le Roy’s many undated notes in the APS has to do with another dinner, to which Buffon has invited him, BF, and WTF, apparently at BF’s suggestion. The Count and the Doctor developed enough of an acquaintance so that they continued to correspond intermittently after BF returned to America.