not time to follow his struggle and the means by which he succeeded 

 in raising himself to an unexampled position of eminence, where 

 naturalists, societies, and seats of learning vied with each other to do 

 him honour; but must take a cursory glance at the basis of his claim 

 to our admiration. 



Previously to his time, natural objects, plants, and animals had 

 been considered in a very general way, and there was little or no 

 attempt at a classification, or even any system of description, or any 

 uniformity in naming. Every writer gave names of his own, no 

 definite meaning attached to the terms used in description, and con- 

 fusion and misunderstanding were everywhere. To remedy this then, 

 was the work of Linne. He had to discover methods of distribution 

 and classification, founded upon definite and striking characters, 

 which would be applicable to all natural objects ; he had to invent 

 terms and give each term its definite meaning, by which to indicate 

 the vast variety of form found in all living creatures. But in order 

 to do this, he first had to acquaint himself with all the natural objects 

 which had been amassed by numerous collectors, and described by 

 various authors. No easy task was this in an age when intercom- 

 munication was difficult, when travel was by no means a slight or 

 even a safe undertaking. However, this " task of Hercules " de- 

 terred him not. 



The first result of his labour and study was the issue in 1735 of 

 the 1st edition of the "Systema Naturae," or "System of Nature," 

 comprising only 1 2 folio pages. All natural objects known to him 

 were placed in the three so-called " Kingdoms of Nature," with 

 which expression we have been familiar from our cradles. These he 

 subdivided : the mineral kingdom into Petnv (stones), and Fossilia 

 (fossils), and so on ; the vegetable kingdom into sections founded on 

 diversities in the composition of the flowers ; and the animal king- 

 dom into Quadrupeds, Birds, Reptiles, Fishes (including whales), 

 Insects (including crabs), and Worms. In this work the species 

 were only listed and sorted into groups, /. e. early genera. This 

 comprehensive view of the whole domain of Natural History excited 

 much attention, and thenceforward, in a long series of publications, 

 Linne worked steadily and constantly to perfect his plan, assigning 

 by degrees names and descriptions to all species with which he 

 became acquainted, and inserting them in their proper position in 

 his system. Before his death no less than twelve editions of the 

 " System of Nature " were brought out, and the last was comprised 

 in three octavo volumes, totaling 2370 pages; this, too, without the 

 botanical part, which he had developed in an independent series of 

 works. 



Linne brought out no less than 44 works, more or less devoted to 

 the study of insects, besides about as many more chiefly devoted to 

 the botanical part of his system, most of them requiring much study 

 and research, and several, besides the " System of Nature," passed 

 through two or more editions. 



