PREFACE. 



Lapp07iica. One man in our days, by his sci- 

 entific skill alone, has given the bread-fruit to 

 the West-Indies, and his country justly honours 

 his character and pursuits. All this is acknow- 

 ledged. We are no longer in the infancy of 

 science, in which its utility, not having been 

 proved, might be doubted, nor is it for this that 

 I contend. I would recommend botany for its 

 own sake. I have often alluded to its benefits 

 as a mental exercise, nor can any study exceed 

 it in raising curiosity, gratifying a taste for 

 beauty and ingenuity of contrivance, or sharpen- 

 ing the powers of discrimination. What then 

 can be better adapted for young persons ? The 

 chief use of a great part of our education is no 

 other than what I have just mentioned. The 

 languages and the mathematics, however valu- 

 able in themselves when acquired, are even more 

 so as they train the youthful mind to thought 

 and observation. In Sweden Natural History 

 is the study of the schools, by which men rise 

 to preferment ; and there are no people with 

 more acute or better regulated minds than the 

 Swedes. 



To those whose minds and understandings 

 are already formed, this study may be recom- 



