LECTURE II. 57 



Comparative Anatomy, is evident; but we 

 need not defame the memory of so great a 

 contributor to general improvement, by sup- 

 posing that he was ignorant of the advan- 

 tages and disadvantages of his own scheme, 

 particularly as he has himself so frequently 

 acknowledged the latter. Though he thought 

 it right to arrange the subjects arbitrarily, 

 and chiefly by their external characters, 

 because, those but little informed could then 

 co-operate with the more erudite, he must 

 have known that he violated the arrange- 

 ment of nature j for even with respect to 

 plants, he separated the individuals of their 

 families, and placed them apart amongst 

 strangers with which they had no na- 

 tural connection. Of his twelve botanic 

 Classes, there are but two which have a 

 claim to be considered natural ; and even 

 in these, it is not unexceptionable. I al- 

 lude to the classes Tetradynamia and Syn- 

 genesia. Surely, too, Linneus must have 

 perceived that he committed still greater 

 outrages against natural order in the animal 

 kingdom. I would never advise my young 

 iriends, to endeavour to raise their own 



