160 Life of Linneus. 
been done according to the principles laid down by Linneus, in so 
much that it is not without justice that even at the present day, we 
are disposed to attribute to him, all the happy additions which have 
been made to that Linnean language, which has rendered natural 
history so clear, concise and popular. 
The nomenclature of animals and plants was in a still greater state 
of disorder, anarchy and embarrassment, than the style of descrip- 
tion. Each name was composed of a long phrase, so that the sim- 
ple catalogue of a garden formed a volume in quarto, and no one 
knowing these names by heart, they were repeated without precision. 
Linnzus fancied he might apply to the nomenclature of natural be- 
ings the same system which is universally admitted for that of the 
individuals of the human species; that every animal, every plant, 
might have a generic name, which would. correspond with our family 
name, and a specific name, which would represent our baptismal 
name; thus the names became short, clear, precise; they could 
easily be remembered, and their stability might lead us to ‘hope, that 
they would one day be universally employed. 
These two grand bases, the language and nomenclature, being 
determined, Linnzus had the courage to apply them himself to all 
natural history ; he traced the picture of the three kingdoms accord- 
ing to these principles, and astonished the world, both with the varie- 
ty and precision of his knowledge, and by the care which he took 
to introduce into this vast picture a crowd of new objects,—of point- 
ed observations; he cited under each article those ancient names 
which were the best established, the figures the least imperfect, the 
localities the most certain, which he could obtain. He authenticated 
his works by a multitude of ingenious and original memoirs, in which 
he developed the points which were the least conformable to the con- 
ciseness of his habitual method, &c. Was it surprising that such 
immense labors should astonish the learned world, or such an entire 
change of forms and terms should embarrass those who had spent 
their lives in learning others, and that naturalists should thus become 
divided, on the one hand into admiring enthusiasts, and on the other 
into Pieactors, unjust to the merits of Linneus? 
If from the form we proceed to the classification, we shall find, 
in analyzing it, a curious example of this double position; that some 
have greatly admired what Linneus himself regarded as precarious 
and conditional, and others have censured ‘those parts of the works 
of Linneus, in which he is the most worthy ofeulogy. I will ex- 
