204 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE, 



not in France only, but throughout Europe ; and in 1841, at the 

 66th year of his age, in the University of Berlin, his first lecture, 

 if not apologetic, was at least pivotal, and he there commenced 

 in silence to elaborate a new species of philosophy which Avas to 

 bear the name of " positive" philosophy. This he never pub- 

 lished. 



The favorite expression of Schelling, best defining his phi- 

 losoph}', was : 



" Ueber die Natur philosophiren heisst die Natur schaffen ;" 

 that is to say, " To philosophize upon nature is to create nature." 



He lived long enough to realize that his creations were only 

 transcendental chimeras. Long enough to witness the triumph 

 and practical adoption of the " method" of his rivals, the Geoff- 

 roys. 



The father, Etienne, having established analogies from points 

 of views in the department of comparative anatomy, the son, 

 Isidore, brought additional demonstrations of the same from 

 tera-tology, still further strengthened by confirmations from 

 embryology. Nor was he limited to the animal kingdom in co-or- 

 dinating analogical developments. Vegetable characteristics 

 were found to have typical coincidences and analogies, in harmony 

 with those of the animal kingdom. 



Thus munificently commissioned by the positive charter from 

 nature, countersigned by all the subordinates in the two king- 

 doms, the animal and the vegetable, Isidore Geoifroy St. Hilaire 

 went forth to possess an inheritance which he has transmitted 

 greatly augmented by newly discovered laws and harmonies. 



What Alexander and Aristotle did for Greece as acclimators, 

 Isidore Geoffroy St, Hilaire desired to do for all the world. This 

 thought, in him ever active, sought a development, and found its 

 best expression in the organization and labors of the society of 

 acclimation. " Apres la taille des pierres, arrive leur mise en 

 ceuvre." 



ACCLIMATION OF PLANTS. 



Prof. Mapes said that the definition of Webster, the process of 

 becoming habituated or inured to a foreign climate, being 

 accepted as the meaning of the word " acclimation," there was 

 no such thing as an acclimation of plants. There is no analogy 

 in this respect between plants and animals. Lima beans grown. 

 here for a hundred years are no more hardy than those just 

 imported. The Gossypeum Arboreum produces a very different 



