'The Natural History of Selborne 315 



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. 1 



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 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, pepper, &c. As 

 every climate has its peculiar produce, our natural wants 

 bring on a mutual intercourse; so that by means of trade 

 each distant part is supplied with the growth of every latitude. 

 But, without the knowledge of plants and their culture, we 

 must have been content with our hips and haws, without 

 enjoying the delicate fruits of India and the salutiferous drugs 

 of Peru. 



Instead of examining the minute distinctions of every 

 various species of each obscure genus, the botanist should 

 endeavour to make himself acquainted with those that are 



* See the late voyages to the South Sens. 



1 In this pregnant sentence, again, White foreshadows the transition 

 from the age of Linnaeus, bent all on classification, to the age of Darwin, 

 bent all on the interpretation of the facts of nature. ED. 



