13 



tabilium," which was received, when it appeared, with universal 

 respect, though in many and important points it assumed and held 

 new grounds. As a system it cannot be said to have succeeded 

 better than others, but the high character of the views which it em- 

 bodied, and the ability with which they were brought forward and 

 sustained, together with the perfect devotion to truth and science 

 which shone through the whole, have left abiding impressions on 

 Botany. 



Fries may be said to represent that higher school of Linnasans, 

 which started from the great naturalist's natural doctrine, and as- 

 serting the parity, at least, of his method with that of Jussieu,so far 

 as the former was developed, chose still to refer back to Linnseus. 

 And what is it that we see and admire in Linnaeus ? A mind, I think, 

 looking at once at and through objects to their laws: that, with 

 what is thus gained, looks further and deeper, while still the har- 

 mony which it seeks is foreshadowed, and objects become eloquent, 

 and more and more akin to their fellows and to man. A mind to 

 which all philosophy and every science is cognate; which seeks all, 

 because in the entirety alone it can find satisfaction. To such a mind 

 what an office is that of the naturalist, what a privilege is life, 

 what a manifestation of God is nature ! These are common words, 

 but I know they are often mere words, and such they are not here. 

 Would that I could express what I feel of the greatness and the 

 worthiness of the position of Linnaaus; could portray him aside 

 from species and genera, from system and method, the true man, 

 the true philosopher, the true naturalist; and, going back to the 

 ground of all this, I could show it in that universality and rejection 

 of all prejudice, that progress from laws within to seek laws with- 

 out, that continual faith in and seeking for harmony, in which Lin- 

 naeus wholly lived. 



" The tuneful voice was heard from high, 



Arise, ye more than dead. 

 Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry, 

 In order to their stations leap, 



And music's power obey. 

 From harmony, from heavenly harmony, 



This universal frame began: 



From harmony to harmony 

 Through all the compass of the notes it ran, 

 The diapason closing full in man." 



As it is only the method of Fries, his whole way of looJdng at 

 nature, with which we are here concerned, his particular systematic 

 constructions become less important. The tone of his works is, to 

 me, in perfect unison with that of the works of Linnseus. An ex- 

 hausting observation is always directed by a comprehensive and 

 genuine philosophy, and not one of his least important papers have 

 I seen, that is not suggestive of wisdom in the study of nature. His 

 "Systema Mycologicum," and his "Lichenographia Reformata," are 

 classics already among the works on these plants; and these, and 

 his lectures at Lund and at Upsal, have raised up in Sweden a class 

 of younger botanists, worthy of the country and the university of 

 Linnaeus. 



As the best further illustration of the method of Fries, I have 

 2 



