?• R E F A C E. XXV 



fome men cannot diftinguifli one flroke 

 from another in the cypher ? 



Thofc who have not learned to read the 

 characters of nature for want of leifure, pa- 

 tience, or any other caufe^ ought not to 

 complain that Linnasus cannot make them 

 fkillfull in a part of knowledge they are 

 not qualified for. If a man unacquainted 

 with the learned languages wants to know 

 the meaning of a Greek word, will he com- 

 plain of the lexicon, becaufe he cannot find 

 it ? certainly not. Neither ought we to 

 complain of Linnaeus in a fimilar cafe. 



This i think is a full anfwer to all the 

 objections that have or can be made to his 

 fyftem in general. What errors he has 

 committed according to his own principles 

 in relation to particulars is quite another 

 queftion. I am one of thofe who think 

 him not free from errors. Nor is it won- 

 derful! that he fliould fall into fome, but it 

 is truly wonderful! that one man fiiould be 

 able to invent and carry fo far fo nice and 

 extenfive a fyftem, efpccially when we con- 

 fider not only what he has done in botany, 

 but what he has done in all the branches of 



natural 



