NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 223 



LETTER XL. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, June 2nd, 1778. 



DEAR SIR, The standing objection to botany has always been, 

 that it is a pursuit that amuses the fancy and exercises the memory 

 without improving the mind or advancing any real knowledge ; and 

 where the science is carried no farther than a mere systematic classi- 

 fication, the charge is but too true. But the botanist that is desirous 

 of wiping off this aspersion should be by no means content with a 

 list of names ; he should study plants philosophically,' should in- 

 vestigate the laws of vegetation, should examine the powers and 

 virtues of efficacious herbs, should promote their cultivation, and . 

 graft the gardener, the planter, and the husbandman, on the 

 phytologist. Not that system is by any means to be thrown aside, 

 without system the field of Nature would be a pathless wilderness ; 

 but system should be subservient to, not the main object of, 

 pursuit. 



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 spon- 

 taneous 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 kiridred 

 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, 



* See the late Voyage to the South Seas. 



