their senses, or the deductions of sound reason, these 

 pseudo-philosophers unblushingly asserted. It was thus 

 that the facts of Nature were habitually twisted to suit 

 the requirings of a preconceived theory ; and thus 

 laborious lives were spent to no other purpose than 

 in heaping up a mass of unreadable nonsense in our 

 libraries. 



The enunciation of the inductive philosophy was the 

 first great blow to the fame of these writers. The per- 

 fect system of the universe was found to be no longer 

 tenable; it fell almost at the first onset, and with it fell 

 the charm which had embalmed every opinion handed 

 down from classic times. The Book of Nature began to 

 be studied with ardour, and in a new and unfettered 

 spirit. No longer clogged with theories, naturalists found 

 that, so far from its having been exhausted by the 

 labours of their predecessors, Natural History was full, 

 to overflowing, of novel interest. Facts were no longer 

 tried by traditional authority ; but tradition was sub- 

 jected to the close inquisition of newly-observed facts. 

 In every country observers were at work; and, instead of 

 the somnambulism of the preceding ages, naturalists, 

 like men newly risen, went forth in their morning 

 strength and ardour to the labour of the day. The fair 

 sun of science was already above the horizon, and it was 

 their privilege to drink in his earliest beams. 



So long as Natural History was encumbered with its 

 pseudo-classical incubus its votaries were few in num- 

 ber. The more it grew into a science founded on ob- 

 servation, the more it attracted popular attention. The 

 writings of LINN^US, composed in a clear and elegant 



