14 



the admiration he has awakened for those whose memory he 

 embalms. The work is worthy of the expense, good taste, and 

 artistic skill with which it has been presented to us by the pub- 

 lishers* if it were only to illustrate the truth of what Linnaeus 

 said of Bartram, and what Fothergill said of Collinson's rela- 

 tions to him " The greatest natural botanist in the world." 

 This from one to whom botanists concede the title of " The im- 

 mortal Swede," is, most truly Laus, laudari a laudato viro 

 the greatest natural botanist in the world, in the time of Lin- 

 naeus, upon the authority of Linnaeus ! And Peter Collinson 

 " may almost be said to have created him such !" The lovers 

 of nature everywhere, to whom the London merchant pointed 

 him out, regarded him with admiration ; the savans of Europe 

 anxiously sought his correspondence ; nobles and princes patron- 

 ized his labours, and learned societies conferred upon him the 

 highest testimonials of esteem. He was ^not only a man of 

 science, but a man of genius. He was also endowed with ex- 

 traordinary capacities of body as well as mind, enabling him to 

 endure fatigue, encounter danger, overcome difficulties, un- 

 dergo privation, and persevere to the end, whatever great 

 object he had in view. Like Newton, in simple facts he saw 

 great principles, and traced them out with profound interest 

 and untiring assiduity. Thus he became a man of great attain- 

 ments. But he was not only a man of science, a man of genius, 

 and a man of great capacities he was a man of great virtues. 

 His life is scarce more distinguished by his discoveries in the 

 secrets of nature, than by his reverence for the great Author 

 of those secrets, and love of his fellow creatures, for whose 

 enjoyment in common with his own, they were in infinite wis- 

 dom contrived. His enthusiastic devotion to the study of 

 nature's handiwork did not prevent his attention to the com- 

 mon business of life, the cultivation of his fields, provision for 

 his family, building his house " with his own hands," "train- 

 ing up his children in the way in which they should go," and 

 settling them in life. He was prudent, temperate, charitable, 

 hospitable, maintaining a strict regard for the rights of others, 

 and being scrupulously attentive to all the proprieties of life. 

 It is among the most striking and interesting things to be re- 

 marked upon the long and cherished intimacy between him 

 * Messrs. Lindsay & Blakiston. 



