APPENDIX. 311 



adherence to established errors, or in consequence of 

 having entertained more advanced ideas, alone escaped 

 his influence ; and it was very probably on both these 

 grounds that Buffon constantly showed himself so ini- 

 mical to the views of the illustrious Swede. 



Linnaeus not only worked himself, but he gave out 

 the subjects of theses, proposed problems to be solved, 

 and sent forth his pupils to explore all regions which 

 promised to yield a rich harvest to the natural sciences, 

 and he thus largely diffused around him the most active 

 and emulous zeal for science. His works, which were 

 written in Latin, are distinguished by a style which is 

 at once very correct and picturesque, and which occa- 

 sionally exhibits a remarkable character of elevation and 

 energy. We would especially instance the preface to 

 his Systema NaturcB^ and his description of the general 

 characters of the Class of the Reptiles in the same work. 



The writings of Linnaeus are essentially descriptive ; 

 and, at the present day, when science has made such 

 rapid progress, we must throw ourselves back into the 

 time at which he wrote in order fully to comprehend 

 the magnitude of the services which he has rendered. 

 Before his time all classifications, including those of 

 botany, were extremely imperfect both in respect to 

 principle and in application. The genera which were 

 tolerably well defined, bore a single distinctive name, but 

 each species was designated by a descriptive phrase ; and 

 it will easily be understood that this kind of phraseology 

 would become very cumbrous in proportion as the 

 number of species was augmented. Hence it became 

 extremely difficult for the memory to preserve any 

 precise impressions of any considerable number of 

 species, while it was almost impossible to grasp at the 

 general relations. Linnseus created the binary nomeri- 

 clature, in which every animal and vegetable being is 

 X 4 



