NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 221 



laws of vegetation, should examine the powers and virtues 

 of efficacious herbs, should promote their cultivation ; and 

 graft the gardener, the planter, and the husbandman on 

 the phytologist. Not that system is by any means to be 

 thrown aside : without system the field of Nature would be 

 a pathless wilderness ; but system should be subservient to, 

 not the main object of, pursuit. 



Vegetation is highly worthy of our attention ; and in 

 itself is of the utmost consequence to mankind, and pro- 

 ductive of many of the greatest comforts and elegances of 

 life. To plants we owe timber, bread, beer, honey, wine, 

 oil, linen, cotton, etc., what not only strengthens our hearts, 

 and exhilarates our spirits, but what secures us from in- 

 clemencies of weather and adorns our persons. Man, in 

 his true state of nature, seems to be subsisted by spontan- 

 eous vegetation ; in middle climes, where grasses prevail, he 

 mixes some animal food with the produce of the field and 

 garden ; and it is towards the polar extremes only that, 

 like his kindred bears and wolves, he gorges himself with 

 flesh alone, and is driven to what hunger has never been 

 known to compel the very beasts, to prey on his own 

 species. 



The productions of vegetation have had a vast influence 

 on the commerce of nations, and have been the great 

 promoters of navigation, as may be seen in the articles of 

 sugar, tea, tobacco, opium, ginsing, betel, paper, etc. As 

 every climate has its peculiar produce, our natural wants 

 bring on a mutual intercourse ; so that by means of trade 

 each distant part is supplied with the growth of every 

 latitude. But, without the knowledge of plants and their 

 culture, we must have been content with our hips and 

 haws, without enjoying the delicate fruits of India and the 

 salutiferous drugs of Peru, 



