17 



"with their own hands." The woodcuts of these houses as 

 they now stand, which we see in Dr. Darlington's book, give 

 some idea of the substantial and the comfortable which pre- 

 vailed among Friends in the construction of their dwellings, in 

 Chester county, a hundred years gone by. In mind, and in 

 reputation, these sons of the soil and distinguished naturalists 

 were also self-cultivated, self-educated men. Brought into 

 intimate contact, by their daily avocations, with some of the 

 most interesting works of nature, they did not close their 

 eyes, as so many of us do, to the beauties and wonders by 

 which they were surrounded. They regarded with scrutinizing 

 curiosity the springing blade, the opening bud, the blooming 

 flower, the ripening fruit, with which nature seemed alive in 

 all but infinite varieties. They soon found it to be among 

 their highest earthly pleasures to make themselves acquainted 

 with the secrets, principles, and unnumbered varieties of the 

 system, in this department of nature's wonder-workings. The 

 enthusiasm with which respectively and successively they de- 

 voted themselves to the study, and the industry and perseve- 

 rance with which they followed it, was accompanied with a 

 modesty, prudence, worth, and other sterling virtues, which 

 must endear their memory 'to all who read their lives, and give 

 it a place in the inner shrine of every naturalist. Linnaeus, 

 Sir Hans Sloane, Solander, Philip Miller, Gronovius, and Dil- 

 lenius were among the correspondents of John Bartram. Dr. 

 Fothergill, Sir Joseph Banks, and Dr. Franklin were among 

 those of Humphry Marshall. 



No two men in this country ever contributed so much to the 

 botanical treasures of England, nor anything like so much to 

 the chief ornaments of her grounds. 



In proof of Bartram's genius, some letters of this self-educated 

 Pennsylvania farmer may be cited, which are scarcely surpassed 

 in beauty of thought and style by anything in our language. 



The following passage from the work before us, teaches us 

 how naturalists give their hearts to each other : 



In a letter from * Dr. Garden to Limueus, dated Charleston, 



* In Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, there is a notice of the celebrated 

 Dr. James Parsons, of the last century, where we find in an Eloge by Dr. 



2* 



