1859.] REVIEWS. 155 



the sexual system^ but also as a zoologist. He was honoured 

 with the society and correspondence of the most distinguished 

 persons of the time, both at home and abroad. The Queen of 

 Sweden, sister to Frederick of Prussia, was one of these. She 

 commanded him to attend at her palace, to arrange and describe 

 her collection of shells and insects, — and Miss Brightwell tells 

 us the Queen was so pleased with the conversation of her distin- 

 guished subject, that she treated him with much regard, and even 

 allowed him to indulge in his usual habit of smoking, in her 

 apartments. The King of Sweden also, in consideration of his 

 services in describing the rare animals and birds of his collection, 

 in Latin and Swedish, with plates, conferred on him the honour 

 of the Polar Star, which had never before been conferred for 

 literary merit. 



Linnaeus did not forget to record his gratitude to the friends 

 who took him by the hand in early life. One of these was Count 

 Zessin, who had been tutor to the King of Sweden, and he is 

 affectionately noticed in the last edition of the ^ Systema Naturae,' 

 published in 1766. 



It appears to us, from the writings of this great man, particu- 

 larly his Lapland Tour, that he did not only ^'^ look through Na- 

 ture up to Nature's God," but he looked into Nature, and there 

 saw Natu7'e's God. 



Miss Brightwell, in concluding her work, says : — " I wish to add 

 a few words recommendatory of the study of botany for its OAvn 

 sake. We are no longer in the infancy of the science, and its 

 utility is put beyond question. Of its benefits no one doubts. 

 Our food, our physic, our luxuries, are all improved by it. All this 

 is acknowledged, but are its benefits as a mental exercise suffici- 

 ently considered ? And yet Y,'hat study is calculated to afford 

 more delightful instruction to the young, at once gratifying a 

 taste for beauty, and training the youthful mind to thought and 

 observation ? Affording too the most healthful gratification and 

 innocent enjoyment, its pleasures spring up beneath our feet, and 

 as we pursue them, reward us with simple and pure joys. All is 

 elegance and delight in this charming study, and there are no 

 painful, distressing, or unhealthy experiments to be made. And 

 it is certain that no one can rightly enter upon this and kindred 

 pursuits without having cause in the end to pronounce them 

 profitable both here and hereafter." 



