158 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



dependence of the form of the leaf on certain intersecting circles, 

 of flowers on intersecting spheres, and so on, which have rather 

 tended to obscure the excellence of the purely morphological 

 parts. For it is in his feeling for form that Nehemiah Grew 

 seems to excel. The fact that the microscope was a compara- 

 tively new invention was very much in his favour ; for not being 

 perfectly accustomed to it, he was in the habit of perpetually 

 checking his work by reference to naked-eye observations — a 

 habit which unfortunately botanists of the present day tend to 

 lose ! 



In conclusion I should like to quote Nehemiah Grew's own 

 apology for the magnitude of the task he had undertaken : 

 " The Way is long and dark : and as Travellers sometimes 

 amongst Mountains, by gaining the top of one, are so far from 

 their Journeys end ; that they only come to see another lies 

 before them : so the Way of Nature, is so impervious, and, as 

 I may say, down Hill and up Hill, that how far soever we go, 

 yet the surmounting of one difficulty, is wont still to give us 

 the prospect of another. ... A War is not to be quitted for the 

 hazards which attend it ; nor the Councils of Princes broken up, 

 because those that sit at them, have not the Spirit of Prophecy, 

 as well as of Wisdom. To conclude, if but little should be 

 effected, yet to design more, can do us no harm : For although 

 a Man shall never be able to hit Stars by shooting at them ; yet 

 he shall come much nearer to them, than another that throws 

 at Apples." 



