68 SIXTEENTH CENTURY. PT. lit 



in ancient and modern languages. He calculates the ave- 

 rage length of its life ; its growth, the number of young ones 

 it will bring up, and the illnesses to which it is subject ; its 

 instincts, its habits, and its use ; and to all this he adds care- 

 ful drawings of the animal and its structure. Part of his 

 information he gathered from books and friends, but the 

 larger part he collected himself with great care, and to him 

 we owe the first beginning of the Natural History of Animals 

 in modern times. 



In Botany he made the first attempt at a true classifica- 

 tion of plants, and pointed out that the right way to disco- 

 ver which plants most resemble each other is to study their 

 flowers and seeds. Before his time plants had been arranged 

 merely according to their general appearance ; but he showed 

 that this system is very false, and that, however different 

 plants may look, yet if their seeds or flowers are formed 

 alike, they should be classed in the same group. He did 

 not live to publish his great work on plants, but left draw- 

 ings of 1500 species, which were brought out after his death. 



Gesner also wrote a book on Mineralogy, in which he 

 traced out the forms of the crystals of different minerals and 

 drew many figures of fossil shells found in the crust of the 

 earth. The same year that this book was published he died 

 of the plague. When he knew that his death was certain, he 

 begged to be carried into his museum, which he had loved 

 so well, and died there in the arms of his wife. 



There is something very grand and loveable in the life 

 of Gesner. Born a poor boy, he struggled manfully upwards 

 to knowledge, and became rich only to work for science. 

 Every one loved him, and he was well known as a peace- 

 maker among his literary and scientific friends, and for the 

 readiness with which he would lay aside his own work to 

 help others. Yet, though he had to earn his own living, and 



