THOMAS ANDREW KNIGHT, ESQ. 69 



horticulture." After giving a sketch of Mr. Knight's labours, 

 his Royal Highness concluded by saying, " It would be difficult 

 to find any other contemporary author, in this or other coun- 

 tries, who had made such important additions to the knowledge 

 of horticulture and the economy of vegetation." 



Before closing this brief and imperfect, though it is hoped 

 not unfaithful memoir of Mr. Knight's life, a portion of the 

 task which is, perhaps, the most difficult remains to be accom- 

 plished. 



If those by whom this memoir has been drawn up have felt 

 themselves unequal to exhibit the workings of his mind in the 

 investigation of the truths of philosophy ; if they have not ven- 

 tured to point out what are the errors he has exposed, and the 

 difficulties he has cleared up ; or what are the new facts that he 

 has added to science, it is satisfactory to them to reflect, that 

 his own works, which have received the approbation of most of 

 the naturalists of Europe, have done this more fully than could 

 have been effected by any one less qualified than himself to 

 write on the subject. 



But the acquisition of philosophic truth, and the study of 

 the works of creation which we have the highest authority for 

 believing to be not merely a noble and legitimate exercise of 

 man's powers of mind, but one acceptable to his Creator, and 

 for the comprehension and investigation of which his mind 

 seems to have been expressly adapted is not the great object 

 of life. 



It is in the cultivation of man's moral powers, and in his 

 reception and acting upon those truths which the highest 

 exercise of reason would not have discovered, that the end of 

 creation is to be looked for : and the memoir of Mr. Knight 

 would be incomplete, without an attempt at least to delineate 

 those deeper and more hidden principles which stamp the 

 moral and religious character of an individual. It will be felt 

 that this in all cases is a delicate and difficult task ; and if any 

 part of what is said should be thought to have been dictated 

 rather by affection than by unbiassed judgment, it will, it is 



