在已探知的星球中，唯地球有人类。人类社会和自然界构成了这颗星球的整个世界。人类来源于自然，依赖于自然，不断地探索自然，了解自己从何而来，向何而去？为什么在这万物共生的自然界脱颖而出，成为这个世界的主宰？又怎样与这个世界大家庭和睦相处，适应客观发展？……只有了解过去，才能更好地认识现在；懂得了过去和现在，才能主动地面对未来。历史是最好的教科书，在《地球简史》《人类简史》《时间简史》等纷纷面世的当代，人们不由地把目光又投向260多年前就诞生了的《自然史》，这部洋洋数百万字的旷世巨著，开辟了科学史作的先河，它从行星到地球，从空气到海洋，从动物到人类，……天、地、生、人，无所不包，海、陆、空，面面俱到，是一部记述自然的百科全书。
书中全面论述了地球理论和地球历史，展现了风、火、水、潮、雷、震（地震）、光、热等各种自然现象；对人和生物的论述更是生动形象，丰富多彩。从生命的起源、器官的发育、青春期的特点，到机能的退化，直至死亡，把人类生息繁衍的过程讲得有声有色。对生物，特别是动物的描绘投下了重重笔墨，占据了大量篇幅，天上飞的，地上长的，野生的，驯养的，食肉的，食草的，大到熊、马，小至鼠、兔，畜、禽，鸟、兽，花、草、树、木，样样俱全，活灵活现，既有理性，又有情趣，好像无论哪种野性的动物都可以成为人类的宠物和朋友。法国著名思想家卢梭是这样评价的：“布封以异常平静而又悠然自得的语言歌颂了自然界中所有的重要物品，呈现出造物者的尊严与灵性。他具有那个世纪最美的文笔。”
万物皆有道，自然最奇妙。几乎所有涉及自然的事物都可以从《自然史》汲取营养，得到启示。读这类名著，既能增长知识，丰富阅历，又能赏心悦目，闲情逸致。即使历史已过去了几百年，社会发生了巨变，也未失去这部历史巨著的价值和魅力。这就是一部不朽之作的历史地位。布封在书中提出“物种可变”和“进化”的思想，被生物进化论创始人达尔文称为“以现代科学眼光对待这个问题的第一人”。
哲语说，文如其人。《自然史》的作者布封，全名乔治，路易，勒克莱尔.布封（Georges-Louis Leclerc，Comtede Buffon，1707-1788），如同他的不朽著作一样，也有一部不寻常的经历。他生于法国，自幼喜好自然科学，特别是数学。1728年法律专业毕业后，又学了两年医学。20岁时就先于牛顿发现了二项式定理；26岁成为法兰西科学院机械部的助理研究员，翻译并出版了英国博物学者海尔斯的著作《植物生理与空气分析》和牛顿的《微积分术》；1739年，32岁的他转为法兰西科学院数学部的副研究员，并被任命为“巴黎皇家植物园及御书房”的总管；1753年成为法兰西科学院院士。他用40年的时间写出了长达36卷的《自然史》，后又由他的学生整理出版了8卷，共44卷。此书一出版，就轰动了欧洲的学术界，各国很快有了译本。1777年，法国政府给布封建了一座铜像，上面写着：“献给和大自然一样伟大的天才。”这是对布封的崇高评价。
《自然史》原著为法文，这里出版的是英国学者James Smith Barr在1797-1807年翻译的英文版10卷册，选取的是原著中最精华的部分。发行这样的英文版高级作品、高级读物，就像外文书籍、外文刊物一样，自然面对的也是高水平的读者和馆藏者，希望他们既可以接近原汁原味地欣赏原著，感受自然的魅力，受到自然科学和文学艺术的熏陶，同时又能自然而然地提高英文素养和写作水平。在广大知识分子外语水平普遍提高的今天，这样的科学传播形式也许会受到越来越多读者的青睐。
《Natural History（7 自然史第7卷）》：
The Mexican hog might be rendered a domestic animal like the common kind; he has nearly the same habits and natural inclinations; feeds upon the same aliments, and his flesh, though more dry and lean, is not unpalatable, and may be improved by castration. When killed, not only the parts of generation, if the flesh is intended to be eaten, (as is also done with the wild boar) must be taken instantly away, but also the glands at the opening in the back, and which are common to both male and female, must likewise be removed, for if this operation be deferred for only half an hour, the flesh becomes utterly unfit to be eaten.
These animals are extremely numerous in all the warm climates of South America. They go in herds of two or three hundred together, and unite, like hogs, in the defence of each other. They are particularly fierce when their young are attempted to be taken from them. They surround their plunderers, attack them without fear, and frequently make their lives pay the forfeit of their rashness. In their native country they prefer the mountainous parts to the low and level grounds; neither do they seek marshes nor mud, like our hogs, but remain in the forests, where they subsist upon wild fruits, roots, and vegetables; they are an unceasing enemy to all the serpent kinds, with which the uncultivated forests of the New Continent abound: as soon as they perceive a serpent or viper, they seize it with their fore hoofs, skin it in an instant, and devour the flesh.
These animals are very prolific; the young ones follow the dam, and do not separate from her till they are full grown. If taken young they are very easily tamed, and soon lose all their natural ferocity, but they never shew any signs of docility, but continue stupid, without attachment, or even seeming to know the hand that feeds them. They do no mischief, and may be permitted to run tame, without apprehending any dangerous consequence. They seldom stray far from home, but return of themselves to the sty: they never quarrel among each other, except when they are fed in the same trough. At such times they have an angry grunt, much stronger and harsher than that of a common hog; but they seldom scream, only when suddenly surprised, or frightened, when they have a shrill manner of blowing like the wild boar. When enraged they draw their breath with great force, and point their bristles upward which more resemble the sharp armour of the hedge-hog than the bristles of the wild boar.
The species of the Mexican hog is preserved without alteration, and altogether unmixed with that of the European hog, which has been transported to, and become wild in, the forests of America. These animals meet in the woods, and even herd together, and yet never produce an intermediate breed. It is the same with the Guinea hog, which has greatly multiplied in America, after being brought thither from Africa.
However approximate the species of the European hog, the Guinea-hog, and the peccari, may appear, it is, nevertheless, evident, that they are each distinct, and separate from the others since they inhabit the same climate without intermixture. Of the three, the strongest, most robust, and most formidable, is our wild boar. The peccari, though equally fierce, is yet less active, and inferior as to the engines of defence, his tusks being much shorter. This animal dreads the cold, and cannot subsist, without shelter, even in our temperate regions; nor can our wild boar exist in countries which are very cold; therefore it is impossible that either of them could have found a passage from the one continent to the other, over any northern country; and therefore the Mexican hog cannot be considered as an European hog degenerated, or changed, by the climate of America, but as an animal peculiar to the southern regions of that continent.
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