228 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



LETTER XL. 



SELBORNE, June 2nd, 1778. 



DEAR SIR, The standing objection to botany has always been, 

 that it is a pursuit that amuses the fancy and exercises the memory, 

 without improving the mind or advancing any real knowledge ; 

 and, where the science is carried no farther than a mere systematic 

 classification, the charge is but too true. But the botanist that is 

 desirous of wiping off this aspersion should be by no means con- 

 tent with a list of names ; he should study plants philosophically, 

 should investigate the laws of vegetation, should examine the 

 powers and virtues of efficacious herbs, should promote their culti- 

 vation ; and graft the gardener, the planter, and the husbandman, 

 on the phytologist. Not that system is by any means to be thrown 

 aside; without system the field of Nature would be a pathless 

 wilderness \ but system should be subservient to, not the main 

 object of, pursuit. 



Vegetation is highly worthy of our attention ; and in itself is 

 of the utmost consequence to mankind, and productive of many 

 of the greatest comforts and elegances of life. To plants we owe 

 timber, bread, beer, honey, wine, oil, linen, cotton, etc., what not 

 only strengthens our hearts, and exhilarates our spirits, but what 

 secures us from inclemencies of weather and adorns our persons. 

 Man, in his true state of nature, seems to be subsisted by spon- 

 taneous vegetation ; in middle climes, where grasses prevail, he 

 mixes some animal food with the produce of the field and garden ; 

 and it is towards the polar extremes only that, like his kindred 

 bears and wolves, he gorges himself with flesh alone, and is 

 driven to what hunger has never been known to compel the very 

 beasts, to prey on his own species. 1 



The productions of vegetation have had a vast influence on the 

 commerce of nations, and have been the great promoters of navi- 

 gation, as may be seen in the articles of sugar, tea, tobacco, opium, 

 ginsing, betel, paper, etc. As every climate has its peculiar 

 produce, our natural wants bring on a mutual intercourse ; so 



