condition of its existence. Most slowly does it extend, as disciples 

 become masters, and hardly and not at all perhaps does it advance, 

 as little minds falsely interpret and great ones are rare, and hinder- 

 ed as it is and hemmed in by circumstances of society, it is long 

 peculiar to the nation wherein it arose. But Aristotle must be re- 

 garded, not only as himself competent to write the history of nature, 

 but as representing others, who had before him, in different ages, 

 comprehended not only the knowledge of their times, but expressed 

 and transmitted it in philosophical form. By Aristotle and Theo- 

 phrastus, the latter of whom is the father of Botany, science was 

 established forages, and the long era which follows them ends only 

 with the rise of modern philosophy. This was the era of contem- 

 plation : the old civilization of Greece becomes extinct ; a military 

 power rises, domineers, and dies ignobly ; the Goths appear, and 

 while the nations which they grew into are developing and ad- 

 vancing, and more slowly yet the feeble aborigines of Europe and 

 the old Roman colonies are becoming states, or at least civilized ; 

 while, to come down yet further, all men seem to be soldiers, and 

 the highest refinement expresses itself only in chivalry, this can- 

 not be more than a contemplative period, and it is a doubtful chance 

 if the great minds think of science at all. Dioscorides is the second 

 father of Botany, and Pliny is the expression of Roman science, 

 or rather of the want of it among the Romans. The Arabians 

 reproduce Grecian science, but with reference mostly to medicinal 

 or other art. And this is all we know of this long age. 



The modern science dates, then, from about the beginning of 

 the reign of Ed ward the Sixth, whenlightand liberty overcame every 

 power of darkness, and shone forth, quickening and awakening all 

 knowledge. Many struggles had there been before, and were after ; 

 and it was only in New England that the spirit of liberty of that age 

 found in the next its true expression, and left its abiding influences in 

 free institutions and a spiritual worship : but with science happily 

 the awakening was universal and the revival real everywhere. From 

 its great superiority in the number of species over all the branches 

 of zoology, except the lowest and least known, as well as from the 

 universal distribution of its objects, Botany began now to receive 

 great attention, and the grounds of a reasonable system were 

 sedulously sought. Ca?salpinus, Ray, Morrison, and Tournefort 

 are only a few of the more distinguished authors, who constructed 

 more or less wholly artificial systems of plants. What with their 

 labors, and the general activity of scientific men reacting upon 

 every particular branch, researches were carried further and deep- 

 er in Botany than they had ever been before. The true principles 

 of the physiology of plants were sought out; and numerous collec- 

 tors brought together species from every country. 



It was now that Linnaeus appeared, whose keen eye penetrated 

 all the science of his age, and the ages ; whose genius comprehend- 

 ed it ; whose philosophy established it anew ; who, while he in- 

 dicated the affinities of nature, and pronounced their explication 

 the true end of the science of plants, yet constructed also an artifi- 

 cial system, which so surpassed every other, that it seemed nigh to 



