561 
tainment, that I could wish you to be beset with 
difficulties every day, if those difficulties would 
induce you to apply to me. My search after truth 
is so strong, that I like the discussion. of difficul- 
ties; for I have always found that if I have not 
been able to solve the difficulty itself, I have always 
gained knowledge of matters connected with it 
more than suflicient to repay my labour. In the 
beginning of my study of botany, I remember being 
employed for three days in the investigation of Hy- 
pericum procumbens. (You will say, how stupid I 
was!) But I believe I learned more from ascer- 
taining what tt was not, than from any other dis- 
covery which I ever made. 
From all this preface, one would think that you 
had now thrown down some arduous matter in my 
way. That is not the case; but it is a pleasure to 
talk with you. 
I am of the same opinion nowwith respect to your 
Syllabus as I ever was, and have still no doubt but 
that in your plain illustration and management it 
would become a very popular Phzlosophia Botanica. 
I ama great advocate for throwing out criticisms 
andhints of improvement upon the Linnean system, 
as it is the surest mode of strengthening and esta- 
blishing it. What a great advantage would it have 
been to the world, had Aristotle begun where Lin- 
neus did! All the subjects of natural history would 
have been so well known, that we should now have 
been advanced to the philosophical parts of the 
study,—the gradations of nature in structure and » 
ceconomy ; and, by having the whole before us to 
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