Chap, i.] from Brunfels to Kaspar Banhin 1 5 



science, even if they had not been as good as they are ; for 

 botanical literature had sunk so low, that not only were the 

 figures embellished with fabulous additions, as in the ' Hortus 

 Sanitatis,' and sometimes drawn purely from fancy, but the 

 meagre descriptions of quite common plants were not taken 

 from nature, but borrowed from earlier authorities and eked 

 out with superstitious fictions. The powers of independent, 

 judgment were oppressed and stunted in the middle ages, till 

 at last the very activity of the senses, resting as it does to a 

 great extent on unconscious operations of the understanding, 

 became weak and sickly ; natural objects presented themselves 

 to the eye even of those who made them their study in 

 grotesquely distorted forms ; every sensuous impression was 

 corrupted and deformed by the influence of a superstitious 

 fancy. In comparison with these perversions the artless 

 descriptions of Bock appear suitable and true, and are refresh- 

 ing from their immediate contact with nature ; while in the 

 more learned Fuchs criticism of other writers is already seen 

 united with actual examination of natural objects. Great was 

 the gain when men began once more to look at plants with 

 open eyes, to take pleasure in their variety and beauty. It was 

 not necessary for a while that they should speculate on the 

 nature of plants, or the cause of plant-life ; time enough 

 for that when sufficient practice had been gained in the percep- 

 tion of their resemblances and differences. 



The German fathers of botany connected their labours with 

 the botanical literature of classical antiquity only so far as they 

 sought to recognise in the plants of their own country those 

 named by Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny and Galen. The 

 attempt to do this indeed led to many mistakes, for the descrip- 

 tions of the ancient botanists were very imperfect and often 

 quite unserviceable for the recognition of the plants described. 

 In this point therefore the compilers of herbals found no 

 models worthy of imitation in the old writers. But in seeking 

 to recover a knowledge of the medicinal plants of the Greek 



