424 



was succeeded by a nephew, capable of advancing his un- 

 dertakings, and worthy to inherit his fame. The present 

 Professor de Jussieu has constructed a regular system, or 

 methodical arrangement, upon the natural orders of his 

 uncle : a system which is necessarily imperfect, because 

 there are numerous genera whose orders remain undeter- 

 mined ; and necessarily artificial also, because human 

 knowledge, as well as human intellect, being limited, no 

 man can fully comprehend, much less preconceive, the 

 entire plan of the all-wise Author of Nature, without ex- 

 ception or ambiguity. One celebrated character only, the 

 famous Sir John Hill, has laid claim to this power. 



When Dr. Garden discovered in Carolina what was 

 thought to make a new order of animals, Sir John Hill 

 wrote to congratulate him, as having verified a sublime 

 speculation of his own. 



" I have disposed," says he, " all the works of creation 

 in a series or chain, and have distinguished each by its 

 appropriate number. In doing this I have perceived that 

 there must be some intermediate beings, not yet disco- 

 vered, to fill up breaks in my chain. Your new animal 

 comes precisely between two of my numbers where there 

 is one number unoccupied." Had I not seen the original 

 letter of Sir John Hill in Dr. Garden's hands, I could 

 scarcely have believed the existence of so much pre- 

 sumption. The opinion, and its pretended anticipation, 

 prove equally unfounded ; for the animal supposed to con- 

 stitute, not only a new genus but a new order, proves 

 really a fish of the well-known genus Murana. in ac- 

 ceding to this opinion of the learned Professor Camper 

 I must ingenuously confess, that, in this instance at least, 

 the sagacity of an able physiologist has rendered a ma- 

 terial service to systematic naturalists ; though I cannot 

 submit to the contempt with which he in general regarded 

 men as able and learned as himself, though in a line of 

 science for which he had little taste or ability. The na- 

 tural orders of plants, therefore, not being as yet all de- 



