108 TAXONOMY. 



der plants only under this point of view, we come to believe, 

 in the end, that this is the object of science. We become sa- 

 tisfied to thrust the plants that come in our way into the 

 ranks which the Linnaean Classes furnish, and we neglect the 

 relations of the remaining organs. The mind becomes unac- 

 customed to consider Nature in her greater relations, and a 

 real distortion seizes the understanding, from the habit of as- 

 sembling together the most dissimilar things, and of separa- 

 ting; from one another the most closely related bodies. 



To avoid those evils, we must begin, as soon as we have 

 obtained a competent knowledge of the common plants ac- 

 cording to the Linnaean svstem, to study the Natural Method. 

 The Cryptogamous Plants, as they have been called, force us 

 as it were to have recourse to these ideas of natural affinity. 

 Because here, where no artificial system is of any avail, we 

 must necessarily pay regard to general relations, to resem- 

 blance of structure and of outward appearance, and to the 

 sum of the other marks, in order to be able to arrange these 

 plants. As every person perceives the necessity of a natural 

 arrangement of these lower plants, wherefore should the study 

 of relationship be confined entirely to these, and not be ex- 

 tended also to the higher plants ? 



163. 



That Linnaeus himself viewed his artificial system in a 

 right manner, is evident from a great multitude of passages, 

 where he rates the value of the natural method very high, 

 and views this arrangement as the last object of Botany ; — 

 where he expressly asserts, that only imperfectly instructed 

 botanists set a small value upon this method, but tliat all ac- 

 complished natural historians regard it as the highest aim of 

 their labours ; — where, when he was only thirty years of age, 

 he promises to dedicate his whole life to the formation and 

 perfecting of the natural method ; — where he solicits all able 

 botanists to make common cause with him in securing the 

 great purpose of a scientific knowledge of the affinities of 

 plants ; and where he expressly says, respecting tlie artificial 

 aiTangement, that it is merely an expedient of necessity, and 



