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 Linnaeus 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 Linnaeus 

 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.f Say what 



* Linn. Corr. i. p. 164. 177. 



f And yet, with these confessions, the unfortunate vanity of 

 Linnaeus 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- 

 turae, where these productions are described." — Linn. Corr, I. 



