BIRTH AND DEATH OF
MOUNTAINS
MOUNTAINS
"It is 200 years since Voltaire and Buffon had their famous disagreement
about how seashells found their way to the mountaintops. And while it seems painfully obvious today that Buffon knew what he was talking about and Voltaire did not, it was certainly not so clear then. Voltaire believed in facts and reason, and he saw no reason to believe that the mountains were nothing but static. However, his political views obliged him to leave his native france from time to time for the freer air of Switzerland. There, surrounded by the upthrusting and eroding evidence of the peaks themselves, he was reminded daily of Buffon's arguments. Eventually he accepted them, and the two men became friends again."
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