902 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



have felt the emotions excited in 

 our soul by the enchanting elo- 

 quence of BufTon, we are disposed 

 to return to Linnaeus in order to 

 arrange the enchanting pictures of 

 the former into proper order ; be- 

 ing afraid lest our recollections of 

 them should be no other than as- 

 semblages of ideas vague and con- 

 fused. And undoubtedly it is not 

 the least merit of those two writers, 

 that they constantly inspire, reci- 

 procally, a desire of returning from 

 the one to the other, although this 

 alternation seems to prove, and 

 proves, in fact, that there is some- 

 thing wanting in each of them. 



Population. 



[^From the Morning Chronicle.l 



Sir; 

 If you can spare a small space 

 at this anxious crisis, 1 hope you 

 will allow me to make a few re- 

 marks on the dread of excessive 



gable industry, great sensibility, 

 strong imagination, and vigorous 

 understanding, came to the field 

 armed with the resources of pro- 

 found erudition. But in this field 

 each chalked out for himself a dif- 

 ferent course, according to the par^ 

 ticularbent of his genius. Linnaius, 

 with fine discrimination, seized the 

 distinguishing features of things. 

 Buftbn, at one glance, combined the 

 remotest relations. Linnaeus, ac- 

 curate and exact, has created a new 

 language, for the purpose of com- 

 municating his ideas with precision 

 and vigour. Buffon, copious and 

 rich, employs tiie whole compass 

 and powers of his vernacular tongue, 

 for unfolding the extent of his con- 

 ceptions. Never were the beauties 

 with which the Creator has adorn- 

 ed every thing to which he has giv- 

 en being, described in a more im- 

 pressive manner than by Linnaeus 

 in detail. Never was the majesty 

 of the creation, or ihestriking gran- 

 deur of the laws to which it is sub- 

 jected, more nobly displayed than 

 by BufFon. The first, frightened at 

 the chaos in which the history of population, which has lately seized 

 nature had been left by the negli- some philosophers, and produced. 



I 



gence of his predecessors, had the 

 skill, by simple methods and clear 

 and short definitions, to reduce this 

 immense labyrinth to order ; and to 

 render the knowledge of particular 

 substances a matter of easy attain- 

 ment. The second, disgusted at 

 the dryness of writers contented, 

 for the most part, with being exact, 

 knows how to interest us in parti- 

 cular beings by the magic of his 

 harmonious and poetical language. 

 Sometimes, when one is fatigued 

 vvitli the toilsome study of Linnaeus, 

 he loves to repose on Buffon, But 

 it always happens that when we 



I must confess, some ingenious 

 treatises. The fear seems to be lest 

 population shouldexceed the means 

 of support, and it has been asserted 

 that a nation should grow no more 

 men and women than it can feed. 

 Now, Sir, although I cannot think 

 that we have a right to thin na- 

 tions as we would thin gooseberry- 

 bushes, yet I am disposed to speak 

 a word of comfort to those who 

 are still alarmed at the increasing 

 population of this country, and 

 who have proposed plans for dimi- 

 nishing it which have not met, nor 

 are likely to meet, with public 

 approbation. 



