16 SKETCH OF THE RISE [LECT. I. 



occasionally altered since his death, as the ex- 

 tension of the science demanded ; nor have the 

 ignorant and the unqualified refrained from mu- 

 tilating it by the most fanciful and useless varia- 

 tions : but from under the hands of both sets of 

 reformers, the principles, and the groundwork, 

 still remain, and are likely to do so, unchanged. 

 His system is not, however, the only labour for 

 which Linnaeus deserves the applause of posterity : 

 he made considerable researches in vegetable phy- 

 siology, or the doctrine of the habits and economy 

 of plants; and his endeavours to render Botany 

 useful to medicine and to agriculture, are worthy 

 of the highest praise. 



It is to be lamented that biography has, 

 hitherto, conveyed to us so few notices regarding 

 the method of study pursued by those, whose cha- 

 racters as scientific men we respect and venerate ; 

 and our information, as to this particular of the 

 life of Linnoeus, is, indeed, extremely slender. We 

 know little more, than that he very early began to 

 seek nature in the fields, and to form a herbal ; and 

 that he read and studied " to the last glimpse of 

 the midnight lamp." He fortunately, indeed, lived 

 at a time when philosophy began to assume its 

 most interesting character; when its votary, 

 throwing aside the formal robe of pedantry, and 

 quitting the maze of hypothesis, laboured to apply 

 those principles which his industry, observation, 



