250 Letter from Dr. Thornton 



ment. From a critic I do not sue for lenity. This charac- 

 ter (who guides the balance betwixt the author and the 

 public) I hold as sacred, and we all bow before the tri- 

 bunal. But previous to judgment being awarded, and sen- 

 tence of condemnation on the author parsed, the mind of 

 the critic should be unclouded by prejudices, and the equity 

 of the decision certain. Much honour, otherwise, must be 

 lost; and when it is said, " that ro acknowledge an error is 

 an acquisition of glory ," it is only when with such con- 

 fession a becoming apology is given, and then the honour 

 is in the apology, — which has not been made, nor do I ex- 

 pect it from the reviewer you engaged, — but it would come 

 handsomely from you, if you think, in for o consvientice, 

 that I have refuted the charges against me. 



In my last letter I might have mentioned, that my Tem- 

 ple of Flora, or Garden of Nature, was intended partly as 

 a supplement to Dr. Darwin's beautiful poem, The Botanic 

 Garden. In this part of my work will be found, 1 . the 

 Passifloras Ccerulea; S.Alata; 3. puadrangularis; 4. Re- 

 nealmia; 5. Dragon Arum; 6. Oblique-leaved Begonia; 

 7. Pontic Rhododendron; 8. Hirsute Stapelia ; 9. Carna- 

 tions; 10. Auriculas; 1 1. Hyacinths; 12.Meadia; 13. Li- 

 modorum; 14. Strelitzia Regina; 15. Narrow-leaved KaU 

 mia; 16. Nelumbium speciosum; 17. Nymphsea Lotos; 

 18. Pitcher-plant; 1Q. Superb Lily; CO. American Aloe, &c. 

 flowers not so much as named by Dr. Darwin in his s 

 immortal poem. To each description of these flowers by 

 me, some friendly muse has kindly furnished appropriate 

 verses. Besides the contributions of the late Dr. Darwin, 

 T>t. Shaw, of the British Museum, the Rev. Mr. Maurice, 

 of the British Museum, Miss Sheeles, George Dyer ; See., 

 I have just received some beautiful lines, on the Strelitzia 

 Regina, from the Poet Laureate. " I wish," says Mr. Pye, 

 " they were more worthy of your splendid work, and the illus- 

 trious company of poets who have contributed their labours 

 to it." — In order to blend the (( utile" with the « dulci/' 

 each flower there represented has been carefully dissected 

 by me, and faithfully delineated under my own eyes; and 



that the arts and sciences having a kind of relationship, and being con? 

 nected, as Cicero expresses it, by a chain, explain and mutually assist each 

 ether; and further, that such productions are monuments of the state 

 and prog' ess of the arts in any given period : as such it was recom- 

 mended to persons who, with a taste for the polite arts, possess also the 

 means of indulging it; an:l to public libraries, the archives of what is 

 curious in a country ; and even as a sbezv-book of the two universities, 

 to. foreigners who might visit the head seats of science." 



these 



