238 BOTANY. 



above ; but it is apparent, as I have remarked before in my 

 MonograpJiies, that the numbers returning bear no manner 

 of proportion to the numbers retiring. 



LETTEE LXXXII. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, June 2, 1778. 



DEAB 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 content with a list of 

 names ; he should study plants philosophically, should inves- 

 tigate the laws of vegetation, should examine the powers and 

 virtues of efficacious herbs, should promote their cultivation, 

 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 elegancies of life. To 

 plants we owe timber, bread, beer, honey, wine, oil, linen, 

 cotton, &c. 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 spontaneous 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 upon his own species.* 



* See the late voyages to the South Seas. 



