From a translation site:

Who could exhaust all the different kinds of curious one?  Would you guess, to hear to speak this one of his leopard *, of his feather **, of his music ***, to praise them as this that there is on the earth of more unique one and of more wonderful one, than it wants to sell its shells?  Why no itself it buys them to the weight of the now?

don't know how accurate.

site: http://ets.freetranslation.com/

TONI


---- Rf-J-Rf <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> La Bruyère ( French writer , XVIIIth century ) was not  a shell collector  but in " Les Caractères " ( Chapitre XIII , " de la Mode " , 2 ) he wrote ( sorry for those who do not read French )  : << Qui pourrait épuiser tous les différents genres de curieux ? Devineriez-vous, à entendre parler celui-ci de son léopard *, de sa plume **, de sa musique ***, les vanter comme ce qu’il y a sur la terre de plus singulier et de plus merveilleux, qu’il veut vendre ses coquilles ? Pourquoi non s’il les achète au poids de l’or ? >> . I guess that somebody on the list could give a good translation in XVIIIth century English ?
> Most probably the mentioned seashells are : * Conus leopardus , ** Conus pennaceus , *** Voluta musica .
>
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