36 Dr. Smirn’s Introduëtory Difcourfe. 
excellent biographer Dr. Pulteney has obferved, he began fcarcely 
to feel the difadvantages of his northern fituation. He had dif- 
ciples in every part of the world who vied with each other in fending 
him all the objects of natural hiftory they could procure, fo that 
his cabinet and his garden were equally enriched. At the fame 
time moft of the learned focieties in Europe were proud to enrol : 
him among their members, and even kings contended for the pof- 
feffion of him. He was amply indemnified for declining the 
generous offers of the Spanifh monarch, by the honours and ad- 
vantages heaped upon him by his own fovereign. He received the 
rank of nobility, which in Sweden is neither a trifling nor a barren 
honour, and was made a knight of the Polar Star. This was the 
firft inftance of that order having been conferred upon literary 
merit; nr it m never have been beftowed with greater 
_ propriety on any c an on Linnzus, who was himfelf that 
bright polar ftar to which the fcientific world looked up for affift- 
ance and direétion. : 
This then may be reckoned the moft flourifhing period of 
Natural Hiftory, when difputes about methods and fyftems being 
for the moft part laid afide, every admirer of Nature's works was 
employed in practical obfervations and difcoveries ; while Linnæus, 
whom nothing efcaped, and to whofe decifion all doubts and dif- 
ficulties were e fupervifed and methodized the whole. His 
improvements had fo much facilitated the ftudy of botany, that it 
was no longer an abftrufe fcience confined to the fchools, but 
became an agreeable amufement to perfons of leifure in all ranks 
and fituations. | | 
About this time fome moft fuperb works in natural hiftory 
were given tothe public which, although not very fyftematic, were 
of ufe to the fcience; as Seba's Thefaurus Rerum Naturalium, the 
m volume of which appeared in 1734, and the fecond in 1736, 
the 
