224 



THE NATURAL HISTORY 



[LETT. 



LETTER LXXXII. 



TO THE HONOURAI1LE DAINES BARRINGTON. 



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 philosophi- 

 cally, should investigate 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 hus- 

 bandman, 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 pre- 

 vail, 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. 



The productions of vegetation have had a vast influence on the 

 commerce of nations, and have been the great promoters of 

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

 opium, ginseng, betel, paper, &c. As every climate has its 



