65 



Ray, Tournefort, Linnoeus, &c. afterwards arranged and illus- 

 trated by their systems. 



It was not in Botany alone, that the knowledge of the age 

 was rapidly improving, but in the whole circle of the Arts and 

 Sciences. The Reformation was not confined to religion. By 

 delivering the human miiul from servile thraldom, and teaching 

 Man instead of bowing blindly to custom, merely on account 

 of its antiquity, to have a self-dependence ; to search all 

 things, and retain only that which is good ; it gave an impetus 

 to improvement, which no tyrant opposition could check. 

 Such men as Bacon, Peiresc, and Evelyn arose, and whilst the 

 first traced the path which Men of Science should tread, the two 

 latter lenV^hoir talents and wealth to sustain them whilst pur- 

 suing it.' Bacon, it has been well observed, was the first who 

 taught that Man was but the servant and interpreter of nature ; 

 capable of discovering truth in no other way than by observing 

 I and imitating her operations ; that facts were to be collected, 

 and not speculations formed ; and that the materials for the 

 foundations of true systems of knowledge, were to be discover- 

 not in the books of the ancients, not in metaphysical theories, 

 not in the fancies of men, but by experiment and observation 

 in the external world. Peiresc was a munificent Man of Letters, 

 his house, his advice, his purse were opened to the votaries of 

 every Art and every Science. His library was stored with the 

 literature of every age and nation ; his Garden was stored with 

 the most rare exotics, and thence he delighted to spread them 

 over Europe. Evelyn trod in the same steps. When we cast 

 our eyes over a list of the men of science and literature of all 

 denominations that adorned this age, especially in Botany and 

 Chemistry, the two Sciences of all others the most important 

 to Horticulture, we shall not be surprized to find how rapidly 

 it was rising from being a mere art of Empiricism. And when 

 we note how the thirst for foreign researches was prevalent, 

 we shall easily percieve by what means new plants were gained 



