302 The Natural History of Selborne 



is by any means to be thrown aside ; without system the field of 

 Nature would be a pathless wilderness : but system should be sub- 

 servient to, not the main object of, pursuit. 1 



Vegetation is highly worthy of our attention ; and in itself is of 

 the utmost consequence to mankind, and productive of many of the 

 greatest comforts and elegancies of life. To plants we owe timber, 

 bread, beer, honey, wine, oil, linen, cotton, &c., what not only 

 strengthens our hearts, and exhilarates our spirits, but what secures 

 us from inclemencies of weather and adorns our persons. Man, in 

 his true state of nature, seems to be subsisted by spontaneous 

 vegetation ; in middle climes, where grasses prevail, he mixes some 

 animal food with the produce of the field and garden ; and it is 

 towards the polar extremes only that, like his kindred bears and 

 wolves, he gorges himself with flesh alone, and is driven, to what 

 hunger has never been known to compel the very beasts, to prey on 

 his own species.* 



The productions of vegetation have had a vast influence on the 

 commerce of nations, and have been the great promoters of naviga- 

 tion, as may be seen in the articles of sugar, tea, tobacco, opium, 

 ginseng, betel, pepper, &c. As every climate has its peculiar produce, 

 our natural wants bring on a mutual intercourse ; so that by means 

 of trade each distant part is supplied with the growth of every 

 latitude. But, without the knowledge of plants and their culture, 

 we must have been content with our hips and haws, without 

 enjoying the delicate fruits of India and the salutiferous drugs of 

 Peru. 



Instead of examining the minute distinctions of every various 

 species of each obscure genus, the botanist should endeavour to 

 make himself acquainted with those that are useful. You shall see 

 a man readily ascertain every herb of the field, yet hardly know 

 wheat from barley, or at least one sort of wheat or barley from 

 another. 



* See the late voyages to the South Seas. 



1 In this pregnant sentence, again, White foreshadows the transition from 

 the age of Linnajus, bent all on classification, to the age of Darwin, bent all on the 

 interpretation of the facts of nature. ED. 



