206 PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY. 



p. 265.) Mirbel and Gaudichaud pay altogether too little 

 attention to the relative growth and position of the vessels 

 as regards each other. The pertinacious man, as evidenced 

 in his life, will hardly sacrifice any of his theory to con- 

 troversy; but if it should ultimately tire even the impartial 

 critic, this ought never to go so far as to cause the theory 

 to be rejected without examination. 



Schleiden is the most violent of the botanists mentioned 

 at the commencement. As soon as he meets with an 

 opposite opinion, he rejects it immediately, and so posi- 

 tively, as not to admit the correctness of a single assertion 

 in it. The author of such opinions fares still worse; 

 everything of his ceases to be good. By this means, with 

 few exceptions, he has excited all botanical writers against 

 him, and caused many of his own theories to be rejected 

 by others. This should not prevent the acknowledgment 

 of what is good and excellent in him. When we see the 

 straightforward and positive Gaudichaud, we expect a 

 pertinacious adherence to his opinions, but from Liebig's 

 amiable aspect we should not anticipate so severe a man, 

 nor should we suspect, of the quiet Schleiden, that he 

 could trample upon all who differ from him. The first 

 edition of Schleiden's ' Principles of Scientific Botany' was 

 not incorrectly called a libel, in France ; this reproach 

 would be unjustly made to the second, on the whole, 

 although in parts the same violence is manifest, and pro- 

 bably expresses his feeling. After its dedication to 

 Humboldt, which all who know Humboldt must admire, 

 the following passage immediately follows, in the preface : 

 " It is an infinitely difficult task, again, to throw off the 

 accessory means of education and to retain education 

 alone, to apply the stifled power independently to objects 

 which have been spontaneously selected. On the large 

 scale this is most strikingly seen in the laughable pre- 

 judice for Latino-philological erudition, and the mediaeval 

 monkish book-wisdom, which makes all true living pro- 

 gress in our education appear distorted and crippled as 

 an inherited dyscrasy, and just where it appears in its 



