2 
to her improper and scarcely possible that any other 
person should overlook, or could have leisure to 
select from several thousand letters, those most fit 
for the public eye. This consideration had suf- 
ficient weight with her to attempt what otherwise 
she would have left in abler hands; but, as the letters 
form the principal and most engaging portion of 
the following Memoir, she has given her attention 
to put them in their proper places, and to burthen 
the reader with few that are trifling, although many 
will be interesting chiefly to persons who love to 
trace the doubts and progress of those learned men, 
who by degrees and with much mental labour, but 
more mental enjoyment, have raised the botanical 
department of natural science to its present high 
station and importance; and why may she not 
add another if not a stronger inducement to the 
work ?>—the delight of renewing some shadow of 
that choice society in which she has lived over 
again while preparing these Letters for the press.— 
Would that the ability to appreciate the virtues and 
talents of the lamented subject of this Memorial 
imparted equal ability to record them! 
Sir James Edward Smith has been so long known 
as the possessor of the Linnean Library and Her- 
barium, and as the original founder of the Society 
which bears the name of the illustrious Swedish 
naturalist, that some account may be expected here 
of his early years, and of the circumstances that led 
him to the choice of a profession offering few 
lucrative rewards to an aspiring and not indepen- 
dent man. ‘The last infirmity of noble minds” 
