OF CLASSIFICATION. 357 



©lir knowledge must be imperfect, and that 

 our " genius" is certainly not " equal to the 

 Majesty of Nature." Nevertheless Linntcus, 

 and tdl true philosophical botanists since the 

 first mention of the natural afrinities of plants, 

 have ever considered them as the most im- 

 portant and interesting branch, or rather the 

 fundamental part, of systematical botany. 

 Without them the science is trul}' a study of 

 words, contributing nothing to enlarge, little 

 worthy to exercise, a rational mind. Lin- 

 naeus therefore suggests a scheme which he 

 modestly calls Fvugments uf a Natural Mc- 

 iJiod, which formed the subject of his occa- 

 sional contemplation ; but he daily and hourly 

 studied the prmciples of natural affinities 

 among plants, conscious that no true know- 

 ledge of their distinctions, any more tlian of 

 their qualities, could be obtained without; of 

 Mhich important truth he was not only, the 

 earliest, but ever the m.ost strenuous assertor. 



In the mean while, however, Linnaeus, wel(i 

 aware that a ?/r/^//;v// classification was scarcely^ 

 ever to be completely discovered, and that if 

 discovered it would probably be too ditlicult 

 for common use, contri\cd an artijicial i^y^ 



