OP ARTS AND SCIENCES. 229 



best qualities of the practical astronomer, and to have secured a high 

 place in the annals of the science. Personally, Johnson is said to 

 have been strongly marked in the simplicity and independence of his 

 character, and most attractive by his frankness, geniality, and the full 

 and hearty co-operation which he loved to extend to all his fellow- 

 astronomers. 



The two remaining names represent stars of the very first magni- 

 tude, which, as they pass from the field of sight on the completion of 

 a long and illustrious course, leave no equals behind them. 



Beyond the immediate pale of science, and the circle of its most 

 devoted cultivators, this association of the names of Humboldt and 

 Brovtn may seem new and strange ; — the one, a name familiar to the 

 whole civilized world ; the other, hardly known to a large portion of 

 his educated countrymen. Yet these names stand together, in the 

 highest place, upon the rolls of almost every Academy of Science in 

 the world ; and the common judgment of those competent to pronounce 

 it will undoubtedly be, that although these vacant places upon those 

 honorable rolls may be occupied, they will not be filled, in this, per- 

 haps not in several generations. 



Upon the death of Robert Brovtn, which occurred on the 10th 

 of June last, in his eighty-fifth year, it was remarked that, next to 

 Humboldt, his name adorned the honorary list of a greater number of 

 scientific societies than that of any other naturalist or philosopher. 

 It was Humboldt himself who, many years ago, saluted Brown with 

 the appellation of Botanicormn facile Princeps ; and the universal 

 consent of botanists recognized and confirmed the title. However the 

 meed of merit in science should be divided between the most profound, 

 and the most active and prolific minds, — between those who divine 

 and those who elaborate, — it will probably be conceded by all, that 

 no one since Linnaeus has brought such rare sagacity to bear upon 

 the structure, and especially upon the ordinal characters and natural 

 affinities of plants, as did Robert Brown. True, he was fortunate in 

 his time, and his opportunities. Men of great genius, happily, often are, 

 or appear to be, through their power of turning opportunities to good 

 account. The whole herbaria of Sir Joseph Banks, and the great col- 

 lections which he himself made ai'ound the coast of Australia, in Flin- 

 ders's expedition, and which he was able to investigate upon the spot 

 during the four years devoted to this exploration, opportunely placed in 



