356 LINNiEUS. 



'' I have heard with the most sincere pleasure of 

 your being appointed professor of botany at Upsal. 

 You may now devote yourself entirely to tlie service 

 of Flora, and lay open more completely the path you 

 have pointed out, so as at length to bring to per- 

 fection a natural method of classification, which is 

 what all lovers of botany wish and expect. I know 

 of nothing new here except an essay on the natural 

 history of Cayenne, and a catalogue of officinal plants. 

 These little works will be conveyed to you by the 

 surgeon of Count de Tessin, when he returns home. 

 I shall also add a fasciculus of medical questions, of 

 the faculty of Paris. I have not yet received what 

 you last sent me ; but I return you many thanks 

 for your repeated kindness. I beg leave to offer you, 

 a^ a testimony of my gratitude, a few exotic seeds. 

 ]May God preserve you long in safety ! Believe me 

 your most devoted, Bernard de Jussieu." 



We have nothing of much interest to offer from this 

 quarter, as Buffon, who was the' most popular na- 

 turalist of his time, showed himself the rival of the 

 Swede and a despiser of all classifications ; although, 

 as Lord Monboddo says, " those who have merely 

 made themselves acquainted with the first rudi- 

 ments of philosophy, cannot possibly be ignorant, 

 that a distribution into genera and species is the 

 foundation of all human knowledge ; and that to 

 be acquainted with an individual, as they term it, 

 or one single thing, is neither art nor science." 



From the long list of correspondents which Lin- 

 naeus had in Germany and other parts of the Con- 

 tinent, we shall only mention Professor Gesner at 

 Tubingen; Hebenstreit and Ludwig at Leipsic; 



