96 M. Fee's Life of LinrnBus. 



jects known during his time, and the manner in which they 

 were described, did not as yet admit of any attempt at a classi- 

 fication according to the natural system ; he was satisfied with 

 one purely artificial as to practice, and with a few small fractions 

 of the former order for the purposes of study. He has said 

 very plainly, and on many occasions, that the artificial system was 

 temporary, and only useful in finding out the names of plants, &c. ; 

 but the natural one was the legitimate object of science, and that 

 thither all the labours of the natural historian should be directed. 

 He gave private lessons to select pupils, on the natural system, 

 and allowed no opportunity to escape of enabling them to ap- 

 preciate it. But the learned world has, in this respect, commit- 

 ted two blunders, which are singular on account of their incon- 

 sistency ; some, like Buffbn, have censured him severely, because 

 in his sexual system, objects very unlike are often brought to- 

 gether, as if this juxtaposition was not inherent in every artifi- 

 cial method, which can only be compared to a mere dictionary, 

 and as if Linnaeus had not corrected these casual juxtapositions 

 in his fragments on the natural system : others, who are exclu- 

 sively termed Linnoeans, have considered the artificial system as 

 comprehending the whole of the science ; they have taken for a 

 permanent arrangement what their master laid down as tempo- 

 rary, and have abandoned with contempt the examination of the 

 natural system, which Linnaeus declared to be the true end of 

 science : thus, as it were, depreciating their great leader, in or- 

 der to accommodate their narrow conceptions, they are opposed 

 to the principles which he professed, and, in retaining the ex- 

 ternal form of his writings, they have misconceived their mean- 

 ing. Linnaeus is a far greater man than these pretended Lin- 

 naeans would induce us to believe, and I doubt not, that, were 

 he again to appear, he would be their strongest opponent. 

 Truth, moreover, pierces the clouds on all sides; the artificial 

 methods are reduced to their real value, their true sphere, the 

 art of finding names ; and every one is sensible at present, that 

 the natural system, properly understood, is the true expression 

 of the whole science. D. C. 



