CHANGES OF NAMES. 383 



into oblivion. It savours of malignity to 

 make his crown a crown of thorns, and if the 

 application be unjust, it is truly diabolical. 



Before I conclude the subject of nomen- 

 clature, I beg leave to offer a few reflections 

 on changes of established names. It is ge- 

 nerally agreed among mankind that names of 

 countries, places, or things, sanctioned by 

 general use, should be sacred ; and the study 

 of natural history is, from the multitude of 

 objects with which it is conversant, neces- 

 sarily so encumbered with names, that stu- 

 dents require every possible assistance to fa- 

 cilitate the attainment of those names, and 

 have a just right to complain of every need- 

 less impediment. The grateful Hollanders 

 named the island of Mauritius after the hero 

 wbo had established their liberty and pro- 

 sperity; and it ill became the French, at that 

 period dead to such feelings, to change it, 

 when in their power, to Isle de France, by 

 which we have in some late botanical works 

 the barbarous Latin of Insula Francice. Nor 

 is it allowable to alter such names, even for 

 the better. Americo Vespucci had no very 

 great pretensions to give his own name to a 

 2 



