38 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
collected in all the regions of the globe. The merits 
of that little band of British worthies, composed of 
Lister, Willughby, and Ray, whose writings brought 
about this sudden revolution in our science, seem 
to have been completely forgotten, in this general 
and exclusive homage paid to the great Northern 
Star. Yet England, as if determined to maintain 
her high character for original discovery, produced 
at this epoch one to whom even Linnzus himself 
was to bow. This genius was John Ellis, im- 
mortalised by the discovery of the true nature of 
the coralline animals, and by the masterly investi- 
gation he bestowed upon them. The value of this 
discovery is best stated in the words of Linnzus 
himself. In a private letter to Ellis he observes, 
‘¢ You have enriched our science by laying open a 
new submarine world to the admirers of nature *;”’ 
and “ You have taken so lofty a rank in science, by 
your discovery concerning corallines, that no vicis- 
situde in human affairs can obscure your reputation.” 
No one more fully or more justly predicted the 
lasting fame of our celebrated countryman, whose 
discoveries were not confined, like that of Trembley 
on the polype, to a single genus, but comprehended 
a vast division of the animal kingdom.t+ Say what 
* Linn. Corr. i. p. 164. 177. 
+ And yet, with these confessions, the unfortunate vanity of 
Linnzus prevented him from publicly confessing his own error 
regarding corals, and admitting to the full the splendid dis- 
covery of Ellis. “ He has, consequently,” as Sir James 
Smith truly observes, “ fallen into half measures and ambigui- 
ties, which disgrace that part of his immortal Systema Na~- 
turze, where these productions are described.” — Linn. Corr, I. 
