ISO STUDIES Of NATURE» 



Botanifts, on obferving leaves nearly ilmilar in 

 plants, on the brink of the water, and on the 

 heights of mountains, never entertained a fufpi- 

 cion, that they could anfwer purpofes fo different. 

 Many of them, no doubt, are perfons of profound 

 erudition ; but their learning is rendered entirely 

 ufelefs to them, becaufe their method conftrains 

 them to proceed in one fingle track, and their fyf- 

 tem indicates to them only one kind of obferva~ 

 tions. This is the reafon that their mod numerous 

 collections, frequently, prefent nothing but a mere 

 vocabulary. The ftudy of Nature is fpirit and 

 intelligence fimply. Her vegetable order is an 

 immenfe volume of which plants form the thoughts, 

 and the leaves of thofe very plants, the letters. 

 Nay, there is not a very great number of primi- 

 tive forms in the characters of this alphabet : but 

 by means of their various afTemblages, fhe forms, 

 as we do with ours, an infinite number of different 

 thoughts. As it is with language, in order totally 

 to alter the meaning of an expreffion, all that fhe 

 has, in many cafes, to do, is to change an accent. 

 She places rufhes, reeds, arums with a fleek foli- 

 age and a full pedicle, on the banks of rivers : 

 fhe traces an aqueduct in the leaf, and transforma 

 them into, rufhes, reeds, and arums of the moun- 

 tains. 



We 



