360 Fourth Letter from Dr. Thorn fort 



first had observed, perhaps, the falling off of the language, 

 and endeavoured to provide against it ; and hence called He- 

 berew: but surely the word is of too selfish or confined a 

 nature to be the proper name of the primitive or universal 

 language^ the distinguishing mark between the rational and 

 brute creation. Gealic is therefore the antient and real 

 name, carrying in its basom the idea of Rationality. 



LTX. Fourth Letter from Dr. Thornton, Lecturer on 

 Botany at Guy's Hospital, to Mr. Arthur Aikin, Edi- 

 tor of the Annual Review. 



September t <;, JS04. 

 $Wy No. 1, Hind-street, Manchester-square, 



XJ.AVING skirmished at the out-posts, we come now to the 

 body of the work itself, and the same want of soliditv 

 of criticism will, I trusty be shown here, as in the other 

 parts. 



The reviewer begins by declaring his total unacquaint- 

 ance with the author, and very properly hopes, " that our* 

 minds are free from every improper bias, and as we shall 

 nothing extenuate, so we shall set down nought in rnalice." 

 i( The first section, of twelve pages," he observes, '* con- 

 tains only the plan of the work.' 



" The second is devoted to an explanation of the three 

 kingdoms of nature ; and a. fanciful comparison of the great 

 families of plants, with the different ranks of civilized so- 

 ciety, translated with little variation from the Systema Na- 

 tural of Linnaeus. The whole would scarcely have rilled two 

 paces; but to swell it to the hulk of four, it is stuffed f with 

 two quotations from Milton, with a long note from Ari- 

 stotle and Cicero, and a pious address to the Deity from Fe- 

 nelon; which having, likeBayes's prologues, zixumver sal fit- 

 ness, would do equally for any part of any system of natural 

 history, that ever has teen, or ever will be published." 



* There is no egotism, in the writer. When reviewing Dr. Shaw's 

 work, he there says, " Sudi tve have reason to believe :r> be the case. 

 In the summer of i?oi, wr ourselves happened to be at Inverary in the 

 heigh* of the htrring fishery.'' Page 844.. 



f AppKirg the word stuffed to anv insertion from the prince of poets r 

 recalls to miud the story of a poor author, who, on a Saturday night, 

 < .1,!-., ;:s his last resource, his Milton's Paradise Lost to a pawnbroker, 

 who looking at the work said, " Pray, sir, where does this Mr. IViilton 

 Jive ? I don't know nor never l\eard talk of such a man. If you had 

 brought me -some Milton ousters, I should have then known ivbat value to- 

 have put on them. 



To 



