HISTORY OF BOTANY. 223 



opment. From the days of Theoplirastus until the beginning 

 of the 16th century, Botany, instead of becoming more i)erfect, 

 had been rendered more obscure. This was not owing to want 

 of attention or hibor, but to the false rules of philosophy which 

 had so long prevailed. At length the cause of the evil seemed 

 to be discovered. Many writers protested against the errone- 

 ous opinions of their times ; they said, " Our hlind Tesjpect for 

 the aneients is an insurinoimtahle obstacle to the progress of 

 Botany. We expect to find everywhere the plants of Theo- 

 phrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny ; Avhereas they did not know 

 one-hundredth part of the plants w^hich cover the globe. The 

 first of them never went out of Greece ; the second left only 

 unconnected notes, treating without order upon the medicinal 

 qualities of plants ; and Pliny copied these notes w^ithout com- 

 ment or criticism. We cannot apply to the plants of Germany 

 or France the names under which the ancients described those 

 of Italy, Greece, and Asia; before studying the plants of for- 

 eign countries we ought to know those of our own. Of what 

 use are dis2:)utes about the nature and qualities of species when 

 we are not able to distinguish one from another i The true 

 method of doing this is to explore the plains^ valleys.^ and 

 mountains.^ to examine and compare the plants of our own and 

 foreign countries. Libraries alone are insufficient to malce bot- 

 a7iists.'^ These reflections led to a happy revolution, not only 

 in this science, but in all others ; it may be called the era of true 

 philosophy 7" Yet the principles w^hich were now discovered 

 were not much applied to science until the time of Bacon, 

 Newton, Linnoeus, and Locke ; and it remained for the late 

 Thomas Brown, of Edinburgh, to show that the human mind 

 itself is subject to the same general laws of inquiry which 

 now regulate investigations in the physical sciences. 



34:2, Up to the period of which we are now speaking plants 

 had only been described in alphabetical order ; about this time 

 some German "botanists attempted a collection of individual 

 plants into species / this improvement was received with much 

 approbation. These species luere arranged according to certain 

 general resemblances^ or natural relations j thus we see that 

 natural methods were prior to any attempts at an artificial 

 system. 



Lord Bacon is generally considered as having first taught the proper method of studying the sci- 

 ences, vi/. by ascending from facts to principles ; this is called the method of induction! It has re 

 cently been asserted by an able writer, in one of our first American periodicals, that Bacon was not 

 the author of the inductive philosophy, but that he borrowed his rules of ])hilosophizing from Aristotle, 

 whose real principles liad for ages been misunderstood. It is to be iioped that men of talents will not 

 80 tar depart from the true rules of philosopliizing, as to devote that time in contending about their 

 author whicli migiit be profitably applieil in the application of these rules to the invcstigaiion of truth 

 and nature. 



Botanists began to discover the obstacles to the progrees of science — Era of true philoiopby — 

 3-42. Improvements of German botanista. 



