Review. 173 



in an ardent and well-directed ambition, without which 

 the energies of mind are oftentimes of little avail ; the 

 Naturalist of Sweden has assumed one of the highest 

 stations in the throne of intellectual glory. I am far 

 from being a blind idolater at the shrine of Linn aeus. 

 I am not ignorant of the imperfections of his systems, or 

 of the errors into which he has often fallen. But these 

 errors, when we consider the vast compass of sciences 

 — medicine and all the branches of natural history — 

 which the bold and fertile genius of Linnaeus embraced ; 

 — these errors, I say, must be acknowledged to be few 

 in number. And, in regard to his systems, should they 

 all (as some of them, unquestionably, will) crumble into 

 dust, or share the fate of other systems, neglect — the 

 world, a thousand years hence, will continue to regard 

 with veneration and with wonder those powerful and 

 successful efforts, which called Natural History from an 

 embryo and mis-shapen state into form, into regularity 

 and beauty, and even placed it in one of the most ele- 

 vated stations among the sciences which have attracted 

 the notice of mankind, during the whole of the eigh- 

 teenth, and the first years of the nineteenth, century. 



" Let us follow, then, with zeal, with industry and 

 care, as far as our talents, and the more pressing pur- 

 suits and duties of our life, will permit us to follow ; 

 let us follow, I say, the footsteps of the great modern 

 architect of natural history. With him as our guide; 

 with only a portion of his talents and his warm zeal ; — in 

 these regions of America, where God has displayed to 

 his children of Liberty and Comforts, the immeasurable 

 variety and usefulness of his works, for their study, and 



