LECT. I.] AND PROGRESS OF BOTANY. 17 



and ingenuity had accumulated, to procure the 

 means of supplying the wants and increasing the 

 comforts of his fellow-creatures ; and of spreading 

 over the paths of ordinary life those intellectual 

 embellishments, the enjoyment of which forms the 

 most distinguishing feature of difference between 

 civilized man and the human savage. Such is cer- 

 tainly the ultimate aim of all science. How use- 

 less would have been the discoveries of astronomy, 

 had they not been applied to the purposes of navi- 

 gation ! How vain would have proved the daring 

 experiments of Franklin, in drawing lightning 

 from the clouds, to prove its identity with the 

 electrical fluid, if they had not pointed out the 

 means of securing our dwellings from the effects 

 of one of the most awfiil and dangerous of na- 

 tural phenomena ? What would have availed the 

 labours of a Newton and a Boyle, a Black and 

 a Cavendish, of Linnaeus, Hunter, Volta, and 

 Davy, did they not ultimately tend to benefit ge- 

 neral society ? Without such an object in view 

 they would be but ingenious trifles, and a very 

 straw in the balance, when weighed against the 

 efforts of the meanest artizan. 



Since the days of Linnaeus, therefore, Botany, 

 also, has displayed a more important aspect than 

 it ever before assumed. The rage of making new 

 systems and arrangements of plants has passed 

 away, because these are no longer necessary : but 

 VOL. i. c 



